THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 








-^^^^-^^ 



CTcZ-^f^ 



The Apostle of Alaska 



The Story of 

WILLIAM DUNCAN 

Of Metlakahtla 



By 
JOHN W. ARCTANDER, LL. D. 

Of the Minneapolis Bar 



ILLUSTRATED 




New York Chicago Toronto 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1909, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 






New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue 
Toronto: 25 Richmond Street, W. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 100 Princes Street 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDi'.^s Recrtved 

MAY 15 1909 

Copyrit- ^ 

CLA^ A A, 



To 

Theodore Roosevelt 

The President, 
The Man, 

The Christian, 
The Friend of the Metlakahtlans, 

These pages are 
{Without permission, asked or granted^ 
Admiringly and respectfully inscribed by 
The Author 



Introduction 

WHILE touring in Southeastern Alaska, in 
1903, I first heard of the remarkable story of 
Metlakahtla. 

When, in the following summer, the call of the North- 
land came upon me again, I hied myself to the beautiful 
village, to investigate what sounded like a veritable fairy 
tale. 

I was cordially received and entertained by Mr. "Will- 
iam Duncan, and spent a most pleasant summer with him 
and his people. 

It was then I conceived the idea of becoming the his- 
torian of this interesting little nation, and the biographer 
of their wonderful leader. 

With this object in view, I have ever since spent all 
my vacation months in the little village, and, during the 
summer just past (1908), I wrote this book under the in- 
spiring sky of Metlakahtla. 

During these summer months I have had the unspeak- 
able pleasure, day after day, to listen to the interesting 
table-talks of Mr. Duncan, to witness him in his own in- 
imitable dramatic style unrolling word-painting after 
word-painting of the many interesting incidents of his 
life-work and thrilling experiences. 

After each one of these interesting talks, I made it a 
point to write down his narrative, as nearly as possible 
in the identical language used by him, while everything 
he had said was still fresh in my memory. 

In the following pages, I have faithfully reproduced 

7 



8 INTRODUCTION 

these, Ills stories, from, my note-book. It is Mr. Duncan 
wlio speaks all through them. It is he himself who re- 
peats the very words of the action sought to be depicted. 

In these pages every one who knows Mr. Duncan will 
see him as he is, and moves and breathes, will hear his 
voice, will recognize his virility. That is the merit of 
the book, if it has any. I am merely a reporter, not an 
author. 

It is a matter of pride with me that I have made an en- 
tirely truthful report, and not coloured it in any form, 
shape, or manner. 

The occasion I have had to draw from the inexhaustible 
treasure-chests of the diaries of Mr. Duncan, to examine 
his correspondence and his books, as well as the public 
records of the colony, and all documents in any way 
bearing upon auy incident, has of course been very valu- 
able in enabling me to give to the reader the true history 
of the mission. 

The opportunity I have had, through these many 
moons, to study the Indians, their peculiarities, their 
customs and manners, past and present, to listen to their 
tales of past history and life, and to their interesting 
legends, I have of course fully availed myself of. 

Upon the subject of the contention between Bishop 
Eidley and the Church Missionary Society and its repre- 
sentatives on the one side, and Mr. Duncan and his 
people on the other, I have attempted to be fair, and to 
give credit where credit was due. But I willingly con- 
fess that the int(!nse feeling of Mr. Duncan on the subject 
may, unconsciously, have coloured the glasses through 
which I myself have observed this regrettable series of 
incidents. 

Still, I insist, that I have carefully examined all docu- 
ments bearing upon this untoward strife, that I have 
diligonlly perused all that has been written on the sub- 



INTRODUCTION 9 

ject, on botli sides, and that, after weighing judiciously 
what has been charged and countercharged, I can hon- 
estly state it as my firm conviction that there is, in truth 
and justice, but one side to the case. 

Mr. Duncan may have his faults : most of us have. 
He has, however, fewer than any man I ever met. I 
have not sought to accentuate them ; neither have I at- 
tempted to hide them. They have been allowed to crop 
out in the history of his life, without let or hindrance. 

He has kindly permitted me to use, for the illustrations 
of this book, a number of photographs taken by him, and 
of which the copies lent me for such purpose are probably 
now the only ones in existence. For this great kindness 
I thank him. 

Mr. Benjamin A. Haldane, the native photographer at 
Metlakahtla, Mr. P. E. Fisher, of Seattle, and Mr. E. A. 
Hegg, of Cordova, Alaska, have put me under lasting 
obligation by allowing me to make use, for the same pur- 
pose, of many photos taken by each of them. 

I cheerfully acknowledge my gratitude to Mr. James 
Wallace, who, with great patience, during the long win- 
ter nights of the past five years, has drawn from some of 
the older natives, and faithfully recorded for my use, 
numerous legends of the Tsimsheans. By his painstak- 
ing care, I have been enabled to cull from a most boun- 
teous supply of fifty or sixty legends, some fifteen, none 
of which has ever before appeared in print. 

Jno. W. ArctandeEo 
Minneapolis. 





Contents 








Introduction ...... 


7 


I. 


The Call of the Lord 


»5 


II. 


The Boy the Father of the Man . 


19 


III. 


" Speak Lord, Thy Servant Heareth " . " 


27 


IV. 


A New Mission Field .... 


32 


V. 


Aboard the Man-of-War 




39 


VI. 


The Inside Passage 




43 


VII. 


At the Fort 




51 


VIII. 


The Tsimsheans . 




61 


IX. 


Mode of Living . 




66 


X. 


Peculiar Customs 




72 


XI. 


The Totems and Clubs 




84 


XII. 


The Medicine-Men 




92 


XIII. 


The Religion of the Tsimsheans . 


lOI 


XIV. 


The Son of the Heavenly Chief . 


108 


XV. 


Traimshum, the Tsimshean Devil 


116 


XVI. 


Behind the Walls .... 


118 


XVII. 


The First Message 




122 


XVIII. 


The Devil Abroad 




130 


XIX. 


First Fruits 




• 137 


XX. 


A Christian Village . 




151 


XXI. 


Legaic 




. 157 


XXII. 


Onward and Upward . 




. 165 


XXIII. 


Temporal Advancement 




. 175 


XXIV. 


Interesting Incidents . 




. 185 


XXV. 


How Mr. Duncan Became a Judge 


. 197 


XXVI. 


From Judge Duncan's Docket 


. 202 


XXVII. 


Back in Old England .... 


. 217 


XXVIII. 


Home Again ..... 


. 228 


XXIX. 


Notable Visitors . . 


... I 


236 



11 



12 



CONTENTS 



XXX. 


Troubles Brewing .... 


. 250 


XXXI. 


The Rupture ..... 


. 261 


XXXII. 


The Serpent ..... 


. 268 


XXXIII. 


The Last Blow .... 


279 


XXXIV. 


The New Home .... 


. 287, 


XXXV. 


The Pioneers ..... 


, 298 


XXXVI. 


A Day at Metlakahtla 


305 


XXXVII. 


Leaves from Mr. Duncan's Diary 


310 


XXXVIII. 


Some Metlakahtla History 


315 


XXXIX. 


Flotsam and Jetsam .... 


333 


XL. 


The Metlakahtla Industries 


350 


XLI. 


The " Christian Church " . . . 


358 


XLII. 


The Grand Old Man 


368 




Index ...... 


377 



Illustrations 



Facing page 

William Duncan at Seventy Title 

Bishop and Mrs. Edward Cridge . . . r . 46 

Fort Simpson in 1857 52 

Clah, Mr. Duncan's Tsimshean Teacher ... 58 

Regalia of a Tsimshean Chief 76 

Totem-poles at Howkan, Alaska 84 

Drawing a Seine of Fish at Taine, Near Metlakahtla 122 

Remnants of the House of Neyahshnwah now Stand 
iNG AT Port Simpson 



Kincolith Mission 

Paul Legaic ....... 

Monument to Legaic at Port Simpson . 

Rev. R. Tomlinson and Family 

Mr. Duncan's Pioneers ..... 

Metlakahtla Baseball Nine .... 

The Brass Band at Metlakahtla . 
Women Spinning at Old Metlakahtla . 
Mr. Duncan's Cathedral at Old Metlakahtla 
Rev. W. H. Collison and Family 

Admiral J. C. Prevost 

Bishop William Ridley 

Ridley Home at Old Metlakahtla 
New Day School at Old Metlakahtla . 
Girls' School at Old Metlakahtla 
Boys' School at Old Metlakahtla 
Tom Hanbury's House at Metlakahtla . 
Alex Guthrie's Bungalow at Metlakahtla . 

13 



122 

147 
162 
162 
190 
190 
225 
225 
230 
231 
234 
237 
250 
296 
296 
296 
296 
302 
302 



14 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Benjamin Haldane's House at Metlakahtla 

David Leask's House at Metlakahtla . 

Mr. Duncan in His Den .... 

The Town Hall at Metlakahtla . 

Educational Building at Metlakahtla 

Schoolroom at Metlakahtla . 

Mission House at Metlakahtla 

Cannery Buildings at Metlakahtla 

Mr. Duncan's "Westminster Abbey" at Metlakahtla 

The Guest-House at Metlakahtla in Winter Shroud 

David Leask and Family ...... 

Metlakahtla Girls' Zobo Band .... 

View of Metlakahtla from the Sea 

View of Metlakahtla Looking Down Main Street 

"Messiah" Soloists and Chorus at Metlakahtla i 
1898 

The Bandstand at Metlakahtla 

Lawn Party in an Indian Garden . 

The Young People of Metlakahtla in 189? 

The Marriage of Henry Rudlun 

Canoe Building on the Beach at Old Metlakahtla 

The Interior of the Church at Metlakahtla 

The Sabbath-school Teachers at Metlakahtla . 

Map of Alaska . . 



302 
302 

315 
316 
316 
318 
320 
320 
321 
324 
329 
329 
333 
333 

337 
336 
336' 
340 
340 
347 

358 
362 

376 



The Apostle of Alaska 



THE CALL OF THE LORD 

IT was a stormy, drizzly evening in December, 1853, 
in the little town of Beverley, in Yorkshire, Eng- 
land. 

The windows of St. John's Church, a chapel of ease in 
the little city, were lighted and glittered invitingly out 
into the dreary darkness. But few were abroad in the 
stormy night to accept of the kindly invitation to attend 
the quarterly missionary meeting to be held that evening 
in the little chapel. 

In the vestry, the vicar of the church, the Eev. A. T. 
Carr, after surveying the scanty audience which had 
braved the rain and storm, suggested to the speaker of 
the eveniug, the venerable rector of a near-by town, that 
the meeting had perhaps better be adjourned to a more 
propitious evening. But this was not to the taste of the 
representative of the Church Missionary Society, who in- 
sisted that those who had come out were entitled to hear 
the message intended for them. 

Perhaps the old evangelical preacher had learned from 
a long and ardent experience in the Master's service that 
those meetings, where only a few earnest and sincere 
souls, who loved the Lord sufficiently to brave the wind 
and the weather to attend, were the favourite trysting- 
places of the " Comforter from heaven." 

Be this as it may, the old rector was that evening, be- 

15 



16 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

fore an audience consisting of perhaps not over thirty 
souls, at his best. Never had his pleadings for the wants 
of the missionary fields, white and ripe for the harvest 
and calling in vain for rea^jers, had a more sincere and 
earnest ring. 

And when he turned his eyes towards heaven, and im- 
plored God to fill the heart of some young man in that 
slim congregation with a burning desire to serve his 
Heavenl}^ Master in the mission fields, his words set the 
little audience on fire, and the prayers of earnest Chris- 
tian men and women were wafted with his to the heav- 
enly realms. 

There was one young man in that audience, and only 
one. 

A friend had, the Sunday before, extended an Invita- 
tion to him to be present at the meeting. He graciously 
accei^ted, and promised to be there. 

The evening came. He looked out. The rain and the 
slush were not very inviting for the long walk from his 
home. But he had promised — and he went. 

The service was over. Alone, as he had come, the 
young man went away. As he trudged homeward in the 
storm the thought came to him : 

"I was the only young man there. Why should not 
I become a missionary ? May not the Lord have some- 
thing for me to do in heathen lauds ? " 

Before he slept that night his mind was made up : If 
God wanted him, he would accept the call and bring the 
glad tidings to some desolate heathen home and hearth. 

The young man was William Duncan, subsequently 
'' The Apostle of Alaska." 

During (he turmoil of the day, and in the discharge of 
his daily dulii'S, his resolution grew stronger. 

The day's work over, he sought the companionship of 
one of his best friends, Stephen Hewsou, a young chemist, 



THE CALL OF THE LORD 17 

and, while taking a stroll together, he confided to his chum 
the resolve he had made. His enthusiasm for the cause 
must have been contagious, for his friend, after listening 
to him, exclaimed : 

" If you become a missionary, I will go with you ! " 

Any one who knows what human sympathy means, in 
the most trying moments of life, can appreciate what this 
promise meant to young Duncan, and how it would nat- 
urally strengthen and clarify him in his purpose, and 
give him assurance of success. 

But we can also easily imagine what shock he must 
have experienced when he, within a day or two, learned 
that his friend, moved thereto by the pleadings of a lov- 
ing mother, withdrew his promise, so rashly made. 

Young Duncan also had a loving mother. Undoubt- 
edly, she also pleaded with him not to go away from her, 
not to expose himself to dangers and perils, by land and 
by sea. No doubt she was very persistent in her plead- 
ings, unless, perchance, she knew from experience that 
her son was so constituted that when he saw his duty he 
did it, without regard to consequences, and therefore did 
not strenuously pursue what she well knew would be a 
useless appeal. 

In any event, pleadings of mother and sisters and rela- 
tives could not make him recant the resolution of that 
solemn moment in which he had dedicated his life to the 
Master's service in heathen lands. 

Neither did the fact, that the young resolution of fel- 
lowship on the part of his childhood friend had withered 
by the wayside, for one moment lure him from the path 
he had staked out for himself. 

Like his prototype of old, the great ' ' Apostle to the 
Gentiles," he could truthfully say, at this crucial period of 
his life, as at all other trying and perilous moments which 
were to follow in coming years : "This 07ie thing I do." 



18 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Undaunted by the desertion of bis beloved friend, he 
sought the counsel of his pastor, the Kev. A. T. Carr. 

When he told him of the purpose he had formed he 
was surprised to hear, falling from his lips, these words : 

" It is strange, William, but do you know that evening, 
during the service, I prayed the Lord to put into your 
heart the desire to devote your life to this very work. I 
feel that this call is from the Lord, and that you would 
do wrong not to listen to it. His holy name be praised 
who has heard my prayer ! " 

Another pillar of strength was raised up to our young 
man, in place of the friend who had failed him. 

It was agreed that the pastor should at once communi- 
cate with the Church Missionary Society on the subject, 
and offer young Duncan's services. This was done. 

In due time, a favourable answer came, with the re- 
quest that Duncan himself should address to the Society 
a communication giving his life history, the circumstances 
of his call, and an account of " the faith in him." 



II 

THE BOY THE FATHER OF THE MAN 

THIS is the proper place to give what account I 
can of young Duncan's history prior to the 
memorable night mentioned in the preceding 
chapter. 

That this account is so very scant is due to the innate 
and extraordinary modesty of Mr. Duncan, and his excess- 
ive tendency to shrink from any and all publicity in 
anything concerning his own personality. 

His answer to all requests for something of his personal 
history is invariably this : '^ I do not believe in putting 
my personality to the front. The work is what counts. 
If I, by the grace of God, have been allowed to accomplish 
anything for His glory, mention the work, if you must, 
but leave my personality out. ' I will he glorified, saith 
the Lord.^ I have only been an unworthy tool in His 
hand. If an artisan has done a fine piece of work, you 
would praise him and the cunning of his handicraft. No 
one would think of extolling the tool in his hand. The 
place for the tool is on the floor, or, at best, on the bench. 
There I prefer to remain. It is the Gospel which has 
done the work. As for me, I have done nothing. I am 
only the tool in the Master's hand. Let us forget the 
tool." 

All the most ingenious arguments of the lawyer and of 
the interviewer simply fell to the ground, blunted by the 
adamant will of the great man. This is my excuse for 

19 



20 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

not giving a fuller account of this remarkable man's early 
liistory. 

William Duncan was born at Beverley, a city of about 
12,000 inhabitants, in Yorkshire, England, some time 
duriug the month of April in the year 1832. Even the 
exact date of his birth is known only to himself, and he 
will not give it. 

It is kuown that his mother lived to an advanced age, 
and died in the year 1898. She is buried at Beverley. 
The Indians have told me that, some years ago, he used 
to show them a plaid which he told them his sister had 
embroidered. A remark that once escaped him of spend- 
iug some part of his early childhood in the home of his 
grandmother, Ifeads me to believe that his father died 
when he was very young. But who or what he was, or 
what the circumstances and the religious conditions of 
his parents were, I have been unable to learn. 

I take it, however, that his admission that he had 
never, as a boy, taken God's name in vain, that he never 
thought even of entering a public house, as saloous are 
called in England, that he never, until he came of age, 
had tasted any intoxicating liquor, and his conduct as a 
chorister, as I hereinafter shall relate, all point to the 
fact that he must have been brought up in a Christian 
home, and perhaps under the watchful care of a devoted 
aud praying mother, a possible situation which would, 
partially at least, explain the wonderful work which he, 
by the grace of God, has been allowed to perform, a work 
which I do not hesitate to say has not been equalled on 
any missionary field in the history of the world, by any 
one man. 

An incident in his life, happening when he was only 
8e\'en years old, characterizes the man he afterwards was : 

One day he found a penny in his clothes which he 
could not account for. He did not remember that any 



THE BOY THE FATHER OF THE MAN 21 

one bad giv^en it to him. He knew lie had not stolen it — 
how did it come there 1 

There came into his mind stories he had heard of people 
selling themselves to the devil. At once the thought oc- 
curred to him : " Perhaps the devil had put it there ; 
perhaps he wanted to buy him." No quicker had this 
idea come to him than he hurled the penny as far away 
from him, into the tall grass, as his tiny hand could 
send it. 

'' The devil should have no claims on him ! " 

When he was nine years old, the organist of the great 
cathedral in the city, the Beverley Minster, sent for him 
to test his voice. Word had come to him that young 
Duncan was a natural born singer, with a remarkable 
voice. 

The test was an encouraging and approving one. The 
great musician patted him on the shoulder, and told him 
to appear at the next rehearsal of the vested choir of the 
Minster, and from that week till his voice, at the age of 
sixteen, failed him, young Duncan was not only a diligent 
attendant at all hours for practice and rehearsal, as well 
as at every service in the cathedral, but he was soon given 
the privilege of singing the solo parts of the boy soprano, 
and sang them with such feeling and such artistic skill 
that, according to a publication in the French language, 
which I have had the opportunity to examine, people 
came from long distances to hear his wonderful voice at 
the divine services in Beverley Minster. 

Of this he was not at all aware. In fact, so ignorant 
was he of the unusual charms of his voice, and so strongly 
did he look upon the religious side of his work, that he 
frequently used to get another choir boy with him on 
Saturday afternoons into the outskirts of the town where 
they would kneel down and join in a prayer to God to 
help them to sing their parts well the coming Sunday so 



22 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

that they could be a help iu edifying the congregation, 
and that He might accept their part in that service 
and worship, and help them to render it in the right 
spirit. 

The only education received by the young man in his 
childhood, outside of the usual course in the common 
school, was one year's instruction, mainly in penmanship, 
iu a private institution. 

He became an adept as a penman, and to this accom- 
plishment he perhaps owed his employment in the office 
of the house of George Cousins & Son, the owners of a 
large tannery, and wholesale dealers in hides, leathers, 
and findings, when he was only fifteen years of age. 

His first occupation consisted in making out bills and 
invoices, and copying letters, but Mr. Cousins, the 
younger, was not slow to discover his latent abilities. 
He taught him bookkeeping. Soon he was entrusted 
with the books and cash of the house, and before he was 
eighteen he was engaged as the commercial traveller of 
the firm in seven or eight of the neighboui'ing counties. 

He, from the start, made up his mind to take his relig- 
ion with him into his business. 

He learned the wants of his customers, and made them 
known to his employers, whom he informed that he con- 
sidered himself the agent of every buyer who could not 
personally come to the warehouse of the wholesale house. 
If his employers could not comply with the wishes of the 
buyer, he simply cancelled the order, and told his em- 
ployers that this would be his policy all through, and 
that if it did not meet with their approval, he would at 
once quit their service. They soon ascertained that it 
was money in their pocket to let the young, erratic sales- 
man liave his own way. 

Before he had boon on the road two years, his quarterly 
trips meant that the stock was completely sold out, and 



THE BOY THE FATHER OF THE MAN 23 

the warehouses cleaned out, even to the last piece of 
leather. 

But then he was strictly attending to business. No 
time was wasted, and no penny of expense either. He 
was conscientiously aware of the fact that his time be- 
longed to his employers, and the only privilege he asked 
was to return to Beverley every week in time to allow 
him to attend the Bible class in St. John's Church, taught 
by the Rev. Mr. Carr himself, a thoroughly earnest and 
evangelical preacher, to whose church young Duncan had 
attached himself as soon as his relations to the vested 
choir of the minster had ceased. 

The loss of his voice had made singing out of the ques- 
tion with him for a time, but his music-loving soul 
craved an outlet, and it soon found it in assiduous prac- 
tice on a concertina or accordion, which he still has, and 
which he one day, with considerable show of affection, ex- 
hibited to me. It seemed to grieve him much to ascertain, 
on trying the old instrument, that two of the stops would 
not work at all. 

I, at the same time, saw the flute and piccolo which he 
had played in the days of his youth, but which long 
since had been laid aside for sterner and more practical 
duties. 

An incident of young Duncan's experience during his 
second year as a commercial traveller must be mentioned : 

On his entering the commercial room in the hotel at 
Worksop, the head waiter said : 

** I suppose you have heard the sad news that our land- 
lord has committed suicide since you were with us last ? " 

"No, I have not," said Mr. Duncan. "That is too 
bad. How could the poor man do such a dreadful thing ? 
It is a pity to think that a man could commit such a 
grievous sin as that." 

An aged commercial traveller in the room, a well- 



24 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

known agnostic, but then unknown to Mr. Duncan, put 
in a word : 

'' The only one I think to be pitied is his poor wife. 
She will have a hard row to hoe now. As for him, — if 
he did not like it here, why should he not shuffle off this 
mortal coil ? Better end it at once than to live in misery." 

''But think of his condition in the life to come. To 
meet his Creator in that way ! ' ' 

" Bah ! there is no life to come, nor any Creator, for all 
that. It is all bosh ! " grumbled the old traveller. 

'' Are you goiug to be here to-night, sir? " asked Dun- 
can. " If so, I would like to meet you and talk over this 
matter after I am through with my mail." 

" Certainly I will be here, and will be glad to discuss 
the matter with you, young man." 

After he had seen his customers, and made his report 
to the house, young Duncan looked up his antagonist, 
and found him at the fireplace in the commercial room. 
And now commenced a battle of giants. 

The old agnostic, for a while, found the young man's 
enthusiasm a worthy fence to the blows of his agnostic 
broadsword ; but Duncan soon discovered that the old 
infidel, with his arguments from Paine and Voltaire thor- 
oughly mastered, was getting the best of the discussion 
with a young novice who had not as yet sufficiently 
studied the "apologies" of the Christian religion. 

Finding himself unable to withstand the old infidel's 
attacks with counter argument, he changed his tactics. 

Leaping to his feet he rushed up to his adversary, look- 
ing liini squarely in the eye. 

" Sir ! " he said, "you are twice my age. You could 
easily be my father. I think you are a gentleman, and 
I will ask you on your honour as a gentleman to answer 
me truly and honestly from your heart the question I am 
going to put to you. Much may depend upon your an- 



THE BOY THE FATHER OF THE MAN 25 

swer, as far as my future is concerned. Will you answer 
me truly and honestly 1 " 

And his large blue, honest eyes looked anxiously into 
those of the other man. 

'' Certainly I will, young man. What do you want to 
knowl" 

" The question I want to ask you is this : Here I am, a 
young man. I have, from my childhood, tenderly em- 
braced the Christian religion. I have grown up in the 
Christian faith, have tried to live, as near as I could, a 
Christian life, and have so far enjoyed it. I am happy 
in my Christian faith. Now, sir, the question I want to 
ask you, and I appeal to your honour to answer it hon- 
estly and truly : Would you advise me to give up this 
religion, this faith, this happiness, and come over to 
where you stand, without God, without faith, without 
hope? " 

The old infidel looked as ill at ease as if he had re- 
ceived a blow squarely in the face. His eyes sought to 
escape, now oue way, now another, from the pleading, 
searching glances of the young man ; but finally, as in an 
effort to shake off something disagreeable, he looked his 
young antagonist squarely in the face, and said, while 
the perspiration beaded his forehead : 

''No, young man ! When you put it that way, I can- 
not, I will not advise you to drop your religion and faith. 
Keep them and be hajipy." 

''But what, then, do all your arguments of a little 
while ago amount to ? Don't you see that you are stand- 
ing on a rotten bridge'? You are afraid to ask me to 
come out and stand by your side, for fear the rotten thing 
will not hold us both, but will break down. I, on the 
other hand, stand on a good and solid bridge. I can ask 
you and the whole world to come out and stand at my 
side without fear that the bridge I stand on will give 



26 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

way. When your heart is appealed to, instead of your 
head, your honesty compels you to admit that youi- argu- 
ments are only emjjty words." 

The old infidel wiped the perspiration from his brow 
and rose to his feet. From his lips fell a hesitating 
"Good-night," and without another word he retired from 
the room. 

The young missionary had preached his first sermon, 
even before the Lord had called him to the mission field. 



Ill 

" SPEAK LORD, THY SERVANT HEARETH " 

IT was understood between young Duncan and his 
pastor, the Eev. Mr. Carr, that he should himself, 
on his next trip across the country, compose his life 
story and confession of faith, to be sent to the Society. 
This he did conscientiously and scrupulously. 

On his return, he called on his pastor, and submitted 
to him a rough draft of the communication, which met 
with the full approval of his counsellor. 

On his next trip, a fair copy was to be made out and 
by the pastor forwarded to the proper authorities. 

Duncan did his part, and returned to Beverley late at 
night on the tenth of February, 1854, with the communi- 
cation written out and signed. The next evening he 
would take it over to his pastor, and his future would be 
settled. 

But God willed it otherwise. 

As he in the morning came up the street leading to the 
office of George Cousins & Son, a man behind him said : 

"What are you in such a hurry for, Mr. Duncan I 
Have you heard that your pastor is dead ? " 

"No! Not Mr. Carr?" 

"Yes. Mr. Carr died suddenly in the pulpit during 
service last night." 

It was only too true, and proved a terrible blow to 
young Duncan. Mr. Carr was his valued friend, and the 
only one to whom he could look for counsel and help. 

When he came home that night he placed the letter, 
enclosed in the envelope, already addressed to "The 

27 



28 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, Fleet 
Street, Londou," in his desk. 

He felt then that this blow ended all his ambition to 
become a missionary, and probably looked at it in the 
light of a divine interj)osition. 

But herein he was mistaken. 

A couple of months later, his uncle, who resided in 
London, wrote him that he had suddenly been called to 
the continent for a prolonged stay, and requested him to 
come up to the city at once to take charge of his rooms, 
papers, and other belongings. 

When getting ready for this trip, Duncan, perhaps 
without any particularly definite intention, put the letter 
to the Church Missionary Society in his pocket. 

After comjDleting the business on which he came to 
London, the idea struck him that he might as well look 
up the Society, as long as he was there anyhow. 

He soon found Fleet Street, and looked around. Just 
as he expected, over there was Salisbury Square. And, 
yes, there on a prominent brass plate he discovered, in 
plain letters : '' Church Missionary Society." 

" Let me go up and look at them," was his mental re- 
flection. "Nothing lost, I am sure. They certainly 
can't eat me." 

With these words, he evidently tried to persuade him- 
self that the call of the Lord was not upon him as strong 
as ever. 

But it was. 

At the door a liveried servant inquired as to his wants. 

''Is Mr. Chapman in?" 

"Yes, sir." 

" Ph';us(^ take in my card, and ask if I may see him." 

In a few moments the servant returned. 

"Mr. Cluipmau wishes to see you, sir. This way, if 
you plesise." 



"THY SERVANT HEARETH" 29 

Ushered into the secretary's room, he was met by a> 
cheerful : 

''Ah, Mr. Duncan, glad to see you, sir. I had ex- 
pected to hear from you ere this." 

"So I intended, sir, but Mr. Carr died, you know." 

" Yes, poor Brother Carr has gone home. It was so sad. 
But he is happier now. We wrote him about you, and 
expected an answer from you shortly, but received none." 

' ' I know it, sir. I wrote an answer. But as I did not 
have an opportunity to show the fair copy to my pastor 
for his approval I thought I would not send it." 

"That was too bad — too bad." 

"Oh, nothing is lost, sir. I have it with me. You 
may read it if you wish." 

He read it, and was much pleased with its contents, 
and sent him to the principal, Dr. Eyan, for examination 
and questioning, and before young Duncan returned to 
Beverley he was assured that he would soon hear from the 
Society. 

Within a week he was informed by the committee that 
he would be accepted at Highbury College for his future 
training, whenever he was ready to report. 

On his return, one of his employers told him that there 
was a rumour in town that two of its young men were 
going out as missionaries, and asked him if he had heard 
about it. 

" Yes," said Mr. Duncan, "and I want to tell you, that 
I am one of those young men." 

His employers tried to persuade him not to go, and 
offered him a considerable advance in salary if he would 
reconsider the matter and remain in their employ. 

Knowing Duncan, as they did, they might readily have 
realized that when his mind was made up as to what 
he ought to do, no arguments or inducements could 
change it. 



30 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

As a matter of fairness, he agreed to postpone his de- 
parture for six months, so as to give them a chance to 
train another man for his post, and with this concession 
they had to be satisfied. 

One evening, a few weeks later, a gentleman who some 
years before had filled Mr. Duncan's position with the 
firm, but who was now in the employ of a much larger con- 
cern, came to his rooms and said that he had heard that 
Mr. Duncan was going to leave his present employers, and 
offered him what was deemed an extravagant salary if he 
would enter the employ of his firm. He even held out to 
him the prospect of being admitted as a partner in three 
or four years. 

What his offer of salary was, I do not know for certain, 
but I have been informed, by others than Mr. Duncan, 
that to refuse this offer involved a sacrifice of something 
like $5,000 per annum. 

' ' I thank you for your liberal offer, sir ; but I cannot 
accept it, as I have made up my mind to become a mis- 
sionary," said Mr. Duncan. 

"A missionary ! And at what salary may I ask ? " 

'' I don't know. Perha^js a hundred or a hundred and 
fifty pounds per year." 

"Ha, ha," said the other man. "To throw yourself 
away like that. You, who have one of the keenest busi- 
ness minds in England. Don't you see you are making a 
fool of yourself?" 

"Fool or no fool, my mind is made up, and nothing 
can change it." 

When the six months were up, Mr. Duncan bade fare- 
well to his friends and business associates, and buried 
liimsclf for over two years in Highbury College, where, 
under the tutelage of Dr. Alford and a select faculty, he 
wa.s thorouglily prepared for his life-work. 

So satisfied were his preceptors with the progress he 



"THY SERVANT HEARETH" 31 

made in his studies that, after the lapse of two years, it 
was mooted that he might, after another year's study, be 
sent as instructor to a higher educational institution then 
maintained by the Society in India. 
But this was not to be. 



IV 

A NEW MISSION FIELD 

GEEAT BEITAIN has always been fortiiuate in 
counting among its military and naval officers 
many men who have not been ashamed to recog- 
nize Christ as their loving Master, or to speak a word for 
Him whenever opportunity offered. 

The Gordons, the Havelocks, and the Hedley Vicars 
are not by any means solitary examples of Christian 
soldiery, either in the British army or in its navy. 

Captain J. C. Prevost, a commander in the British 
navy, was a sincere Christian gentleman, anxious to do 
his share to make others partakers of the glorious joy 
with which a living faith had filled his own heart. 

Called home to England in the spring of 1856, after a 
four years' cruise on H. M, S. Virago, policing the 
waters of British Columbia, extending for a distance of 
nearly 600 miles from Puget Sound to Dixon Entrance, 
the southern boundary line of what is now American 
Alaska, but which was then the Alaska of the Eussians, 
a task which had given him a splendid opportunity to 
observe the savage but physically splendid type of In- 
dians that populated this long coast line and the thousand 
beautiful islands skirting it, the commander had become 
firmly convinced that if the loving evangel of the Saviour 
of mankind could be preaclied to these heathen it would 
be likely to bring far better 7-osults as to ending the cruel 
warfare carried on among the tribes themselves, as well 
as between them and the white men, whose trend also on 

32 



A NEW MISSION FIELD 33 

this coast was westward, than to send tliere a whole fleet 
of war-ships. 

His heart was full of sympathy for the red men of the 
Northwest coast, to whose villages no Protestant mission- 
ary had, so far, found his way, though the white people, 
ever since the discovery and survey of the coast by Captain 
Vancouver, in 1792, had maintained most profitable trade 
relations with them. 

The curse of civilization, in the form of rum, de- 
bauchery, and loathsome disease, had readily penetrated 
to the farthest villages, while the peace-bringing message 
of the White Christ had, during all these years, been 
withheld from them. 

Captain Prevost pressed upon the Church Missionary 
Society the necessity of taking up this new mission field, 
and called their attention to the fact that Fort Simpson, a 
fortified trading station of the Hudson's Bay Company 
directly south of the Eussian boundary line, and which 
he had visited with his ship just about the time of the 
memorable missionary meeting in Beverley, herein de- 
scribed, would furnish a well-nigh perfect " naval base " 
for a new mission, both because around it were located the 
numerous villages of the most intelligent tribe of the 
natives on the coast, the Tsimsheans, and because they, 
being the traders of the region, in their turn were the 
intermediaries between the Whites and the other Indians, 
as well as between the Indians of the coast and those of 
the Interior. 

The officers of the Society were strongly impressed 
with the appeals of the Christian naval officer, but re- 
gretfully had to inform him that it was impossible for 
them to open any new field of missionary labour, because 
of the total lack of funds for such purpose. 

They offered him, however, the privilege of the 
columns of their organ. The Christian Missionary Intelli- 



34 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

gencer, for an appeal to the public for funds for the new 
mission, which he had urged should be commenced 
among the Northwest coast Indians. 

It goes without saying that Captain Prevost gratefully- 
accepted this offer, and an eloquent article from his pen, 
describing the Indians, their savage statie, their intellec- 
tual possibilities and physical excellencies, and holding 
up to the readers the reproach to the nation of having, 
for more than seventy years, withheld from these tribes 
the blessings of the Gospel, while showering over them 
the curses of civilization, appeared in the July number, 
1856, of the Society' s publication. 

This appeal was not made in vain. A month later, the 
Society could give the gratifying information that, in 
response to the captain's pleading, two anonymous friends 
had contributed .|2,500 for the proposed mission among 
the Northwest coast Indians. 

One hindrance thus was removed. But another re- 
mained. The Society did not have the proper missionary 
to send. 

Again and again the subject was canvassed at the 
meetings of the committee. They could not find the 
man. 

Then came another visit of Captain Prevost. He 
called to inform them that he had been reappointed to his 
old station on the Pacific Coast, and would sail in a fort- 
night, and, what was more important still, that he had 
obtained the permission of the Admiralty to carry in his 
ship on its trip around the world to Victoria any mission- 
ary whom the Society might conclude to send to the In- 
dians on the Northwest coast. 

Again tlie committee was called together. ^Yhere 
could they ilnd the proper man? This mission required 
a man of undaunted courage, of well-nigh indomitable 
detcrmiuatiou and will-power, of unlimited faith in God, 



A NEW MISSION FIELD 35 

and of good, sound judgment, as the entire management 
of the mission would practically devolve upon him alone, 
without the aid of the counsel and direction of the Society 
or its committee. 

Again and again did they scan the lists of available 
candidates, only to arrive at the same disheartening con- 
clusion. 

Then some one modestly whispered the name of Duncan. 

' ' Duncan ! Duncan ! He is the man, ' ' they all agreed. 
"But— will he go r' 

On Wednesday evening Dr. Alford sat in his study in 
Highbury College. 

Young Duncan had been sent for. He soon approached 
the president of the college, who contemplated him with 
loving eyes. 

"Duncan !" said he, pointing, on a map hanging on 
the wall, to a point away up near the northwestern ex- 
tremity of the American continent, '* the Society con- 
templates opening a mission at this point, among one of 
the most savage tribes of the Indians of the Northwest 
coast, but as any missionary sent there will have to take 
his life in his hands, and perhaps will never return, it 
does not feel like taking the responsibility of sending any 
one there unless he would practically volunteer his serv- 
ices. Your^name has been suggested. Will you go *? " 

''I will go wherever I am sent, sir," was the instant 
response. 

" But the missionary who goes must sail by next Tues- 
day. Do you think you could get ready on such short 
notice?" 

"I can go in an hour, if it is necessary, sir." 

Dr. Alford had not been mistaken in his man. 

The answer showed the stern stuff of which the intended 
missionary was made. 

" God bless you ! Duncan," he said, much affected, '' I 



36 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

honestly believe that you will go and return again hale 
and hearty, in spite of all dangers." 

"Whether I will ever return, sir, will be the Lord's 
business. Going is mine. I am ready to do my part, 
and I am sure we can trust the good Lord to do His." 

On Friday afternoon, Duncan took his leave of the col- 
lege, with the commission of the Society for the Fort 
Simpson mission in his pocket. 

There were perhaps some misgivings, because he was 
prevented from finishing his course of study and had thus 
to be sent away without graduating ; but the committee 
felt that in this case " necessity knew no law," and so far 
departed from the rules. 

The same evening saw Duncan at the store of the out- 
fitters, where he gave his order for a complete outfit, in- 
cluding even a shovel, an axe, a saw, a rake and a hoe, 
besides numerous tools for carpentering and blacksmith- 
ing. 

Sunday was spent in Beverley bidding farewell to the 
relatives and friends of a young lifetime. 

On Monday morning he sped away on the express train 
to Loudon, where he was to receive his final instructions 
at the Society's office before departing for Plymouth. 

In the London streets he was caught in one of the in- 
evitable jams which sometimes suspend all traffic for 
hours and hours. But, undaunted, he sprang from his 
cab, portmanteau in hand, wormed his way through the 
crowded st rects on foot, and succeeded in reaching Salis- 
bury Square just as the secretary was about to leave his 
office. 

Then off he hied to Paddington station, where he found 
the van of the outfitters with his twenty-eight pieces of 
luggage, large and small, and also his best friend among 
tlie students at the college, a Mr. Trott, who had come to 
say the last good-bye. 



A NEW MISSION FIELD 37 

A few moments before seveu o'clock a cab rolled up, 
and, to Duncan's surprise, out stepped Dr. Alford, who 
had concluded to go with him to Plymouth, in order to 
see him safely on board. 

Tickets purchased, the two are soon on their way to 
Plymouth. 

Tuesday morning, before seven, the train pulled into 
Plymouth station. The travellers disembarked and went 
to the harbour. There, in the roadstead, impatiently 
tugging at her anchor, with steam up, ready to speed 
away from old England on her six months' cruise, lay 
H. M. S. Satellite^ a spick-and-span new corvette, with 
twenty-one heavy Armstrong guns. 

Aboard went Dr. Alford and Mr. Duncan, and his 
twenty-eight pieces of luggage, to stow away which gave 
the executive officer of the ship more trouble than any- 
thing else just then. 

Dr. Alford remained on board all forenoon, as he desired 
to say to Captain Prevost a last word in behalf of his 
young friend, but finally had to depart, as the captain 
tarried longer than expected. 

At 2 p. M. on December 23, 1856, Captain Prevost 
boarded his vessel, and, half an hour later, the ship was 
under way, and steamed out of the harbour. 

The young missionary stood alone, by himself, on its 
deck, but, strange to say, when old England's coast 
slowly receded in the fog-banks caressing it he did 
not, for even one moment, look back on what he left 
behind. 

Untrammelled by any ties of kinship and friendship, 
fancy-free and heart-whole, his dancing, courageous, blue 
eyes looked forward, where the prow of the ship was 
ploughing the waves, into the future, fraught with danger, 
into the holy sacrifice of all comforts of home and home 
life, into the awful solitude and the absence of all human 



38 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

sympathy, into the life-work which was to be his, under 
God, to do. 

Forward and then upward were his eyes directed. 

Then a smile, as of heavenly assurance, came into hia 
blue eyes, spread over the ruddy cheeks, and around the 
curves of the firm mouth and disappeared in the curly, 
sandy locks with which the wind played. 

He went away with God on His errand, under the pro- 
tection of the almighty loving Father. 

' ' This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forward unto those things which 
are before, I press towards the mark." 



V 

ABOARD THE MAN-OF-WAR 

IT had been the understanding of the committee that 
the young missionary should be given the privilege 
of the captain's cabin on the voyage. 

It was perhaps with this in view that he wp-s warned 
not to let the luxuries and comforts of the voyage weaken 
him for the many hardships that perhaps would be his, 
when he reached the end of his journey. 

But, as it was, the committee need have borrowed no 
trouble on this account. 

When the captain came aboard, Duncan was, for the 
first time, informed, that inasmuch as a prominent divine 
and his family were to be passengers as far as the Island 
of Madeira, he would, until their departure from the ship, 
have to put up with quarters between decks, and be 
transferred to the engineer's mess for his fare. 

The quarters for sleeping were not over-sumptuous. 
A hammock slung on the middle deck, so high that when 
the young missionary the first night started to retire, un- 
used as he was to accommodations of that sort, he went 
on his head right over his bed, with a rather more hurried 
than dignified movement. 

He soon learned, however, the trick required to land 
in his hammock, instead of on the floor, and had no fault 
to find with his quarters. 

Not so, however, with the engineer's mess, where he 

39 



40 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

was to take his meals. The second engineer was an un- 
couth, rowdyish fellow, and could not speak ten words in 
sequence without ripping out an oath, or other sacri- 
legious expression. 

Duncan bore it as long as he could. But at last he re- 
ported the matter to the captain, who, after he had in- 
vestigated the complaint, fouud it true, and again trans- 
ferred the missionary, this time to the gunners' mess. 

He soon found that he had almost fallen from the fry- 
ing-pan into the fire. 

The chief gunner was glum and morose, ugly and cross, 
so that to sit down to table with him would naturally 
make any one feel as if he were attending his own 
funeral. 

But, as long as he was not condemned to listen to blas- 
phemy and sacrilege, Duncan felt he could stand it for a 
while. 

The worst was, that the captain seemed to have en- 
tirely forgotten his promise. 

The sick vicar and his family were landed at Madeira, 
but no one thought of inviting Duncan to the caj)tain's 
cabin. 

Tiring of the gloomy comj)auy at table, he, at the first 
landing of the ship in Eio Janeiro, purchased a sack of 
rusks. 

Every morning thereafter, he filled a little pocket-flask 
with water, put some rusks in his coat-pocket, and with 
a book for a companion, retired to the privacy of a little 
dingy, dangling in its davits over the stern of the vessel. 

Here he spent his days, for his food munching the dry, 
toasted rusks, and for liquid refreshment sipping the 
water, until evening came, when he retired to his ham- 
mock on the middle deck. 

At Valparaiso he i-eplenished his supply of rusks, and 
for three months, and over, he lived on bread and water, 



ABOARD THE MAN-OF-WAR 41 

rather than submit to the indignities offered him at table 
on Her Majesty's war-ship. 

When the ship left Callao, to which place it had 
brought a number of supernumeraries for Her Majesty's 
squadron stationed near that point, the ship's doctor, a 
kindly. Christian gentleman, and the only one aboard 
who had paid any marked attention to the young mis- 
sionary, on behalf of the officers, invited him to take his 
meals at the officers' mess ; but this he declined to do, 
and it was only by the most persistent urging, that he 
was, about a mouth before the ship reached Victoria, 
induced to abandon his bread and water diet and eat at 
the officers' table. 

On learning of this change in the programme, even the 
captain's memory seems to have been jogged, and he now 
sent for Mr. Duncan, and invited him to come into his 
cabin. But Duncan, who had learned to like his modest 
surroundings, asked to be excused, using as a pretext, 
that his clothes were stowed away somewhere where he 
could not get at them, and that, under the circumstances, 
he preferred to be where he was, and where he now felt 
perfectly at home. 

It follows of itself, that he could not, during all this 
time, remain inactive in his Master's service. 

Only a short time out of England, he organized a Bible 
class among the blue jackets, and had the satisfaction of 
seeing it gradually grow, both in numbers and in interest, 
until, upon the landing in Victoria, it numbered not less 
than twenty-five young tars. 

It would naturally be supposed that young Duncan 
would find a genial companion in the chaplain of the 
ship. But not so. This worthy and dignified representa- 
tive of the Church of England, if I am correctly in- 
formed, deemed it proper to pay no attention whatever to 
the lowly lay missionary, who, without receiving "holy 



42 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

orders" from the Church, dared go to bring the glad 
message of salvation to the jDoor savages on the Northwest 
coast. 

After a tedious voyage, of nearly six mouths, the 
Satellite dropped anchor in Esquimault harbour, near 
Victoria, on the thirteenth day of June, 1857. 






VI 

THE INSIDE PASSAGE 

VICTOEIA, now one of the most beautiful and in- 
teresting cities on the Pacific Coast, located on 
a rock- strewn inlet near the Southeastern ex- 
tremity of the magnificent Vancouver Island, which, for 
a distance of nearly three hundred miles, skirts the west 
coast of British Columbia, was, when Mr. Duncan first 
landed there, an insignificant hamlet, with less than two 
hundred inhabitants, but, nevertheless, possessed of some 
importance, partly because it was practically the only 
white settlement north of the Straits of Juan de Fuca, 
but especially because here was located the headquarters 
for the great Northwest Territory of the powerful Hud- 
son's Bay Company. 

At the fort in Victoria, Duncan was officially received 
by the governor of the company. Sir James Douglas, one 
of the truly great men of Western Canada. 

In order to allow him to begin his work at Fort Simp- 
son, it was necessary to secure the consent of this autocrat 
of the coast. Without that, he would not even be ac- 
cepted as a passenger on the company's steamer, then 
the only means of communication between the Northland 
and civilization. 

This consent the governor was loath to give. 

He insisted that the Society had done a positive wrong 
in sending a missionary to the Indians without first con- 
sulting the company's officers, inasmuch as they were the 
only ones who knew and appreciated the true condition 
of things. 

43 



U THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

'' If I should allow you to go to Fort Simpson, it would 
be just the same as to send you to your certain death. 
This company cannot undertake to be responsible for 
your safety, under the circumstances, and does not want 
to become a party to your murder. Why not remain 
here ? We have thousands of Indians near Victoria who 
need a missionary, and we will give you all the aid in our 
power if you will direct your efforts towards their con- 
version and civilization." 

' ' The trouble is, Mr. Governor, that I am sent to Fort 
Simpson, and to Fort Simpson I must go. If I cannot go 
there, I must return, unless you can secure from the So- 
ciety a change in my orders, which I do not think you 
can. And, to tell you the truth, I would not myself very 
much favour any such action." 

" But, young man, knowing the situation as I do, I feel 
sure you will not last up there three months. It is all 
your life is worth to go among those savage and blood- 
thirsty Indians. You will do no good. But you will 
make us eternally regret it, if anything should happen to 
you, which it most certainly will." 

When Mr. Duncan insisted that he must, nevertheless, 
go, and stated that all he desired was permission to stay 
in the Fort until he had learned the language, after which 
time he would go out and shift for himself without any 
responsibility for his safety on the part of the company, 
the governor finally yielded, with this remark : 

'' Well, young man, if you are to be killed and eaten, 
I suppose you are the one most vitally interested, after 
all, and we will have ' to take a back seat.' " 

The governor, who could not fail to appreciate the 
pluck, courage, and determination of the young mission- 
ary, from that moment became his staunch friend, and in 
after years, on more tlian one occasion, gave valuable 
proofs of his appreciation of Mr. Duncan's wonderful work. 



THE INSIDE PASSAGE 45 

But Victoria was nearly six hundred miles from Fort 
Simpson, and the steamer, which went north only twice 
a year, in the spring and autumn, had but a short time 
before started for the Northland. 

There was, therefore, nothing for Mr. Duncan to do 
but to remain in Victoria for the next three or four 
months. 

This time he spent, by invitation, at the rectory of 
Christ's Church, with the Eev. Edward Cridge, who, some 
years before, had come out from England as chaplain to 
the Fort, accompanied by his young and amiable wife. 

Young Duncan, during this enforced vacation, became 
the leader and instructor of the young ladies' choir of the 
church, and also conducted services for Mr. Cridge every 
Sunday afternoon in a small settlement some miles from 
the village. 

He immediately proceeded to make himself familiar 
with the Chinook language, a trading jargon invented by 
one of the company's agents to enable, to some limited 
extent, interchange of ideas with the different Indians of 
the coast, who all spoke different tongues. 

Later on, he managed to find a Tsimshean Indian, who 
came to him an hour every day, and from him he began 
to acquire some knowledge of the language of the tribes 
among whom he was to work. But in a few weeks this 
Indian was off for his home, and the lessons were inter- 
rupted. He arrived at Fort Simpson a month or two be- 
fore Duncan, and told the Indians about his intended 
coming, assuring them that they would like him, as he 
was their friend, and in this way, to some extent, pre- 
pared the way for Duncan, though he himself never lived 
to see the wonderful change which was to come over his 
people, as he died within a month after the arrival of Mr. 
Duncan at the Fort, from a gun-shot wound received dur- 
ing a drunken brawl. 



46 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The enforced delay was anytliiug but pleasing to Mr. 
Duncan, but even that proved to be of great benefit to him 
in the future. 

While in Victoria, his inviting and frank manner and 
his earnest Christian zeal gained him the brotherly love 
and warm friendship of Eector (later Bishop j Cridge, and 
also the esteem of the Hon. W. J. MacDonald, who, some 
years later, was appointed life-senator of the Dominion 
Senate at Ottawa from the new province of British 
Columbia. 

The friendship of these two men, in his coming hour of 
trial and tribulation, proved to him the greatest boon 
which he possibly could have obtained. 

God only knows where he would have been to-day, and 
what would have become of the permanent fruits of his 
life-work, had it not been for the support and strength 
which these God-fearing men, standing high in the coun- 
cils of the province and the nation, so unstintedly gave 
to him in his hour of sorest need. 

Finally, the hour of release came. 

On the 25th day of September, 1857, he bade his many 
new-found friends in Victoria a cordial farewell, as he 
was about to speed northward and westward on the com- 
pany's steamer. The Otter. 

And now there was in store for him a wonderful 
treat. 

For five days he sailed tlirough inlets and fjords, pas- 
sages, reaches and channels, the one more beautiful and 
wonderful than the other, where the shifting scenery, in 
it.s solitary grandeur, enchanted the eye and charmed the 
soul, from earliest morn to latest dusk. 

The first day out it looked as though the steamer was 
running riglit ashore. Suddenly, just as the prow almost 
tonclu'd the rocks, an inlet opened to the I'ight, the helm 
waa swung hard starboard, and the vessel slipped in as 







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Oh 

o 

X. 

3 



I 

I 



THE INSIDE PASSAGE 47 

between the hugging banks of a river. Then, with just 
as sudden a turn to port, through the swirls and tide-rip- 
ples of Active Pass out into the Gulf of Georgia, where 
in the wide sapi)hire-blue expanse between the snow-clad 
mountain peaks of Vancouver Island and the distant Sel- 
kirk Range on the mainland, he could occupy his time 
all day long by watching the antics of playing and spout- 
ing whales. 

Now the ship enters Discovery Passage, narrow, dan- 
gerous, though interesting, especially so near its centre, 
the renowned Seymour Narrows, or "Yaculta," as the 
natives call them — (the home of the evil spirits) — where 
the tide races through at a speed varying from eight to 
twelve knots an hour. Many a ship has here been caught 
in the swirling currents, and hurled against the knife- 
edged reef in the centre of the channel, only to sink, with 
all on board, into the depths of over one hundred fathoms 
close by. 

No ship at that time dared pass through these dreaded 
narrows, the maelstrom of the northwest coast, except on 
a slack tide, and in full daylight ; and even, to the present 
day, the largest steamers dread the Seymour Narrows, and 
tremble in the embrace of the giant current and tide-rip- 
ples as if they were alive and throbbing with fear. 

At Cape Mudge the young missionary saw the first to- 
tem-pole, the strange carved monument peculiar to the 
North- coast Indians. 

But some distance farther on a more horrible sight 
awaited him. As the steamer approached Fort Rupert, 
at the northeast end of Vancouver Island, dismembered 
and disembowelled human bodies were seen strewn all 
over the beach of a near-by island. 

A few days before, a Haida canoe had come to trade 
with the Fort Rupert Indians. Some slight breach of eti- 
quette on the part of the visitors brought on " their de- 



48 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

voted heads the rage of the local Indians. They said 
nothing at the time, save to nurse their wrath. But 
when the time for departure came a large party had pre- 
ceded the Haidas, laid in wait for them at an island near 
the Fort, where they knew they would camp for the night, 
and killed every one in the party except two young men, 
one of them the son of a Haida chief, who were made 
slaves. And there the dead bodies, mangled and muti- 
lated, were allowed to lie scattered over the beaches of the 
passage as a proof of the prowess of the slayers. 

This was not a very encouraging sight to meet the eye 
of the young missionary — enough, perhaps, to make many 
a weak-hearted man turn back in fear and disgust. But 
not so our young man. " This one thing I do," his eyes 
said. 

It is well that we are soon in Queen Charlotte Sound, 
where the swell of the great North Pacific, and the 
storms of this misnamed ocean, can brush from our dis- 
gusted brows the memories of cruel bloodshed, as the 
steamer, for a distance of thirty miles, is passing in the 
open, with no protection from the mountainous isles of 
the Columbian Archipelago. 

But before long the ship steers by a mountain crag, 
nearly four thousand feet in height, into what looks like 
a mighty, smooth river, running between mountain banks, 
the Fitzhugh Sound. Then it turns to the west through 
the beautifully wooded way, called Lama Passage ; then 
through the narrow confines of Plumper Channel ; and, 
after a few miles' sail in the open again, the way goes by 
the quaint-looking China Hat, past its Indian village and 
phantom-like graveyard, through Finlayson's Channel. 
Tlien we pass into Tolmie Channel, where the throbbing 
of (ho engines echoes back from the near-by mountain 
cliffs, and into the Hiehish N'arrows, where the pines on 
the slope seem to elongate themselves down in the 



THE INSIDE PASSAGE 49 

mirror-like waters, and where the wash of the waves from 
the steamer against the shores, not farther away on either 
side than one could toss a biscuit, awakens the slumber- 
ing eagles, who have rested on the topmost branches of 
the highest trees, and now soar in daring flight towards 
the azure heavens above. 

Then the reaches, Fraser, Graham, and McKay, one 
more beautiful and enchanting than the other. The steep, 
forest-clad mountain ranges, hardly a quarter of a mile 
apart, the deep, still waterways, the snow-clad crags, the 
tracks of snow slides and of rock slides, the hanging val- 
leys, and the noisy waterfalls, sometimes dancing down 
from the very highest peaks for thousands of feet in one 
uninterrupted leap, in their turn each appeal to the eye. 

And then there is the wonderful Grenville Channel, 
perhaps the most magnificent of them all, where, for nearly 
fifty miles, one course is held without change, and the ship 
glides almost noiselessly through the glassy sea, and past 
a panoramic splendour which finds adequate expression 
only in the use of the most extravagant superlatives. 

Such is the wonderful inside passage of the Northwest 
coast, where the largest ships of the world can safely x)ass, 
and the grandest scenery on the globe throws open at 
every turn its shifting vistas to the wondering and ad- 
miring gaze of all who have been fortunate enough to ob- 
tain an admission ticket to this God's own show-place, 
where man has done nothing and nature everything, 
where nature's God speaks to the heart in the strange 
beauty of the great solitude, the " Nirwana" of the won- 
derful Northland. 

We do not wonder that sailing through this magnifi- 
cent and majestic scenery our young missionary read the 
wonderful handwriting of the Master of ' ' sea and sky 
and land." 

It was in the black darkness of a northern winter night, 



50 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

on the first of October, 1857, that The Otter dropped 
anchor outside Fort Simpson. The whistle of the steamer 
created a stir in the Fort, and in the huts of the Indians 
on the beach as well. 

The first sight which Duncan obtained of his future 
charges was in the glare of firebrands, running back 
and forth on the beach. 

With the captain and the representative of the com- 
pany, he was admitted to the Fort soon after the arrival of 
the steamer, for a social call ; but as no quarters had been 
provided for him, he returned to the steamer for the night. 

We can rest assured that, tired though he was, he did 
not, before seeking his couch that night, forget to kneel 
down and implore the Almighty's blessing on the work 
lie had come to do in His name and by His grace. 



VII 

AT THE FORT 

THE Hudson's Bay Company's Fort at Port Simp- 
son was built in 1834, near the beach of a shel- 
tered bay, east of Dixon's Entrance, not far 
from the boundary line of what was then Eussian Alaska, 
but which, in 1867, was to become American Alaska. 

The illustration, on an adjoining page, is from a photo- 
graph taken by a Metlakahtla native, Benjamin A. Hal- 
dane, of an oil-painting by Gordon Lockerby, painted 
from water-colour sketches taken of the Fort and its sur- 
roundings in 1863, and it, in Mr. Duncan's opinion, gives 
a fairly good idea of the Fort, its location and surround- 
ings, as they looked when he, on the morning after his 
arrival, had an opi^ortunity to first observe them. 

The walls of the Fort consisted of palisades, thirty-two 
feet high, built of trunks of trees over two feet in di- 
ameter driven into the ground, and solidly rivetted to- 
gether. The double gate was iron-bound and bolted, and 
in it was a smaller gate, similarly protected, at which a 
sentinel or doorkeeper was stationed night and day, and 
through which, under the rules of the company, not more 
than two Indians at any one time were admitted, so great 
was the fear of the inmates of the Fort of the savagery of 
the natives. 

At the four corners of the palisades, which enclosed a 
space two hundred and forty feet square, were built bas- 
tions, two of which were provided with cannon, able to 
sweep the surrounding country in all directions. 

Inside of the palisades, about four feet below the top of 

51 



62 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

the wall, was a gallery, ruuuing all around the Fort, so 
as to enable an armed guard to march back and forth, 
and command a free view of the surrounding country on 
all sides of the structure, night and day. 

Within the Fort were located the company's store and 
its immense warehouse, where thousands of valuable furs, 
obtained by barter from the Indians at ridiculously low 
prices, were kept, the captain's residence, where the 
mess-room for the officers was located, a smaller building 
for the second officer and visitors, where Mr. Duncan, 
soon after his arrival, was installed in two small rooms. 
There were also a carpenter shop, a blacksmith's shop, 
and a large building, containing five rooms, for the gar- 
rison of the Fort, which, besides the three officers, con- 
sisted of twenty workmen, mostly French Canadians. 
These men were paid the munificent (!) salary of twenty- 
five cents per day and rations. They were all married to, 
or at least living with, Indian women, and four of the 
families were stowed away in one room, each family liv- 
ing in one corner, and doing its cooking at the common 
fireplace in the centre of the room. 

The walls of the Fort have now, and for many years 
past, been razed, and the only remnants of the old Fort 
now standing are the captain's residence and the com- 
pany's storehouse. The latter has now been converted 
into the new company store, and the front of the building 
modernized, but the side wall of the storehouse still 
remains in the identical condition in which it was when 
Mr. Duncan first saw it. 

When the Fort was first built there was no Indian vil- 
lage close by. 

The Tsimshean Indians, or at least the tribes whicli 
later on took up their abode around the Fort, were then 
located at Metlakahtla, some seventeen miles southeast 
from the Fort. 



I 



I 



AT THE FORT 53 

The word " Tsimshean " means "in the Skeena," by 
which is meant to express : " the j)eople living along or 
on the banks of the Skeena River," and this name cor- 
rectly records an historical fact, for these tribes, many 
generations ago, had lived at different points along the 
banks of the Skeena River. The name of each tribe, as 
hereafter detailed, gives to those acquainted with the 
topography of the country, and the language, the exact 
original location of all of them. 

When the Fort had been located at Port Simpson, the 
Indian tribes, who had lived at Metlakahtla, were in- 
duced to take down their houses and rebuild them in the 
immediate vicinity of the Fort, and when Duncan arrived, 
there were, located around the Fort, nine tribes with a 
population of 2,300, living in 140 houses. 

To the left of the Fort is shown the village of the 
Kitlootsahs (the people living inside). To the right is a 
portion of the village of the Kishpokaloats (the people of 
the land of the elderberries). The high pole, in front 
of the last house to the right, is the totem-pole of Legale, 
the principal chief of this tribe, and, in fact, the head 
chief of the Tsimsheans. 

Immediately beyond the confines of this village was 
situated a large peninsula (at high tide an island), on the 
shores of which were located the other villages, one fol- 
lowing in order after the other, all around the island : 
the Kitnakangeaks (the people who live where there are 
lots of mosquitoes) ; the Kitandoahs (the people of the 
land of the poles) ; the Kitsahclahs (the people of the 
canyon) ; the Kitlahns (the people of the island) ; the 
Kitnatowiks (the people of the rapids ; literally, where 
the water runs swiftly) ; the Kitseesh (the people of the 
land of the hair seal traps) ; and the Kitwilgeants (the 
people of the last place down) . 

Besides these, there were five tribes of the Tsimsheans 



54 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

living up the Nass River, some forty-five miles north of 
the Fort, and three tribes had settled ou the coast further 
south. The only one of these tribes which will prove of 
any interest to us, as this story proceeds, is the tribe of 
the Kithrahtlas (the people of the salt water), which 
lived along Brown's Passage, away out in the ocean. 

The houses of the Indians were all one story affairs, built 
on poles or piles on the beach, fifteen or twenty feet above 
high tide, one house almost contiguous to the next, and 
none of them provided with windows. 

Most of them were, however, of quite liberal dimen- 
sions, some of the chief's houses being fifty or fifty-five 
by sixty-five feet. The framework consisted of heavy 
logs, posts, and beams, two or three feet iu diameter. 

Upon the large beams rested the rafters of the roof, 
which came to a peak, part of these rafters, for a distance 
of five or six feet, extending out over the beams. At the 
end of them was fastened a jilank, against which the 
walls, made of split cedar planks, rested. The roof was 
made of big slabs of bark, which were held iu jjosition by 
stones placed upon them. 

There was only one room iu each house. Around the 
walls ran an elevated platform, used for storing away 
eatables and treasure chests, as well as for sleeping pur- 
poses. In the centre was a large, deep, oblong space, 
sometimes dug down into the earth. Here was the huge 
fireplace, with its blazing logs, and, directly above it, an 
opening in the roof, to allow the smoke to escape, and to 
furnish whatever ventilation was needed. It goes with- 
out saying that, in a cold winter, there was plenty of it. 
In fact, I have been told that a person sitting close up to 
the fireplace was fairly toasted on one side, while the 
other w;is white with frost. 

In order to furnish a windbreak, planks were placed 
on the roof, in proximity to this hole, and in such a way 



AT THE FORT 56 

that they could be moved to correspond with the direc- 
tion of the wind. 

It was in this central portion of the house that the 
family spent the day, when not engaged outside. Often 
such a house would be the home of fi-om thirty to forty 
people. 

Each one of the tribes of these savages had its own 
chiefs, usually four or five, one of whom was more promi- 
nent than the others. These chiefs came from the 
*' Skovalis," or "royal blood." No one could be a chief 
unless he, on his mother's side, descended from the 
" Skovalis " of the tribe. 

In the case of the total extinction of the "Skovalis" 
family, the wise men of the tribe would elect one of their 
number to be the founder of another dynasty. 

Then there were the " Ligakets " forming the aristoc- 
racy of the tribe, and from whom the head men, or coun- 
sellors of the chiefs, usually from ten to twelve, came. 
These men obtained their official rank and standing by 
the liberal giving away of projDerty, rather than by reason 
of their birth. 

Then we have the " Waheims," or the common people. 

In addition to these castes or classes, there was also to 
be found in each tribe a number of slaves (kligungits) 
either prisoners of war, or obtained by barter and trade 
from other tribes. The male slaves (hah) were doing the 
hunting and fishing and all other hard work for the 
chiefs and the aristocracy, and the females (wotek) were 
performing all menial work required around the camp. 
These slaves were treated very cruelly, and often killed, 
at the bidding of their masters. 

It has been stated that Legale was the head chief of the 
Tsimsheans at Fort Simpson. This does not indicate 
that he ruled over any other tribe than his own. Each 
tribe had absolute control of its own village ; but when 



66 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

the head men of the different tribes, for any purpose, met 
together in common council, or attended a great feast, 
Legaic, who, by reason of his having given away more 
property than any other chief, ranked above the others, 
took the most prominent seat, and greater attention was 
paid to his words. Only to this extent did his head- 
chiefship go. 

Before Mr. Duncan had been at the Fort a week, it was 
this chief who, a little after high noon, enraged at what 
he considered a lack of recognition of his rank on the 
part of a couple of chiefs of one of the other tribes, in 
order to show the Indians his power and daring, shot an 
unarmed Indian, a visiting Haida, just as he was about 
to enter the gate of the Fort, and left him there wounded 
and dying. 

Not even satisfied with this wanton deed of cruelty, he 
ordered two of his slaves to take their guns and go and 
finish the fellow. 

So thoroughly impregnated with fear of the savagery 
of the tribes were the inmates of the Fort, that not one of 
the garrison dared go outside to aid or rescue the wounded 
man. The officers of the Fort, without interfering or pro- 
testing at all, from the gallery witnessed the killing of 
the wounded man by Legaic' s slaves. Looking more like 
incarnate devils than human beings, they crawled over 
the wood-piles in front of the Fort, and, in cold blood, 
discharged their shotguns into the body of the bleeding 
and dying victim. This scene of bloodthirstiness and 
savage cruelty was Mr. Duncan's introduction to his fu- 
ture wards. Enough, surely, it was to discourage the 
bravest lieart. But to him it only gave a stronger de- 
termination to bi-ing to these people the message of the 
Gospel of peace and mercy. ' ' This one thing I do, ' ' was 
still his motto. 

His practical mind had already told him that the only 



AT THE FORT 57 

way to get to the lieart of these savages was to bring them 
the gospel message iu their own tongue, and that the first 
step for him to take was to learn this barbaric language, 
without a grammar, without a dictionary, yea, even 
without an alphabet, in as short a time as possible. 

He ascertained that no one at the Fort understood the 
language. Even the captain, who had married a native 
woman, got along with the trading jargon. But the 
''Chinook" jargon could not be used for preaching the 
Gospel ; that was certain. 

Within a couple of days of his arrival, Mr. Duncan, on 
the advice of the captain, and with his assistance, secured 
for his teacher of the language a young " Ligaket," from 
Legale' s tribe, one Clah, who occasionally came into the 
Fort, and who had impressed every one with his ap- 
parently greater intellectuality than the common, ordi- 
nary Indian. 

But Clah understood no English, and Duncan hardly 
knew a word of Tsimshean. Both could, however, make 
use of the "Chinook" jargon, and, when that failed, they 
had to resort to the sign language. 

Mr. Duncan had, from his dictionary, made a list of 
1,500 of the most common and useful words in the English 
language. Now, his first task was to get the meaning of 
these words in Tsimshean, and to write them down, 
phonetically, as they were pronounced by Clah. 

The difficulty was not so great while the objects of the 
words were at hand, or within reach, and could be pointed 
out, as a house, a man, a nose, an eye, a chair, a table, 
etc. But when it came to words beyond that pale, the 
ingenuity of Mr. Duncan was frequently taxed to the ut- 
most in the attempt to make himself understood. 

When I, in the summer of 1908, interviewed old Clah, 
who is still living at Port Simpson, I was told by 
him: 



68 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

' ' Yes, Mr. DuDcau teach me English, and me teach him 
Tsimshean." 

This mutual teaching perhaps helped matters some, as 
Mr. Duncan, after a while, could express himself in Eng- 
lish, at least in preparatory efforts to explain the expres- 
sion he was after. Especially must the limited advance 
of his teacher into the mysteries of the English language 
have been of some assistance to him, when he sought to 
learn the Tsimshean expressions for some twelve hundred 
short sentences, which he had formed in English. But, 
after all, the task was appalling. 

He says himself that many a time did he spend half a 
day in obtaining the proper words for a single idea. 

Lacking, as the Tsimshean language naturally is, in 
many expressions greatly valuable in preaching the 
Gospel, — (it has, for instance, no word for " spiritual " or 
"carnal," nor anything that expresses either of these 
ideas) — there are, in other respects, a superabundance of 
expressions, almost inexplicable to us. 

They have, for instance, not less than five different 
words for each numeral, depending on whether one 
speaks of flat objects, like blankets or books, or of round 
objects like dollars, or of men and women, or of canoes, 
or of long objects, like guns, trees, nails, etc. "Two," 
for instance, in Tsimshean, when applied to blankets, is 
"topral," when applied to dollars "kupal," to men 
"tni^ahdool," to canoes "kalbailk," and to guns " koap- 
skan." 

Adjectives are entirely different words when applied 
to tlie singular and to the ])lural nouns. 

Also in other respects is the language intensely com- 
plicated. Words of ten and twelve syllables are not un- 
conunon. One page in English could not be properly 
translated into Tsimshean in much less than two. 

Here is a sample: The expression, "May you be 




CLAH, MR. DU.XCAX'S TSlMSilEAN TEACHER 



AT THE FORT 59 

forever happy " is one word in Tsimshean : '' Clalitum- 
villalooahmamkalikoadshumga." Not very remarkable 
for its compactness and brevity, I am sure. 

One illustration of the tireless efforts of Mr. Duncan to 
acquire the language must here be given : 

He wanted to get the expression in Tsimshean for the 
word '' try." 

He first took a slate, and wrote in big letters, '' Clah," 
and showed him the writing. 

Then he rubbed out what he had written, handed the 
slate-pencil to Clah, and pointed to the slate. Clah, who 
could not write, shook his head. 

" Try ! try ! " with many gestures. 

More shaking of the head. 

Then he took Clah's hand and guided it, so that he, 
with Duncan's help, wrote " Clah." 

Then, pointing to the word written, pronouncing it, 
and to the blank space below, and handing him the pencil, 
he again repeated : 

''Try ! try !" 

A light of understanding now came into Clah's eyes. 
As he took hold of the pencil he exclaimed : 

*' Tumpaldo ! tumpaldo ! " 

" Ah," said Duncan, who wanted to be sure that he 
had got it right. Running over to the fireplace, he 
grabbed hold of a heavy log lying there, pretended to at- 
tempt to lift it, and, being unable to do so, crying all the 
time, while looking anxiously at Clah : 

" Tumpaldo ! Tumpaldo ! " 

'' Ah ! Ah ! " was the answer. 

''Ah" is Tsimshean for "yes." "Ein," for "no." 
He had found it. 

"Tumpaldo" means " I will try," just as "amo" in 
Latin means "I love." The first person singular is ex- 
pressed by the terminal " o." 



60 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

While Mr. Duucan is working day aud night, and 
burning the midnight oil, in efforts to acquire the lan- 
guage, we will devote a few chapters to learning some- 
thing about the Tsimshean Indians, their manners, cus- 
toms, and religion, for they had a religion before Duncan 
came among them, primitive and crude it is true, but 
nevertheless containing, in its legendary lore, thoughts 
which should make it much easier for them to embrace 
the wonderful truths which he had come to teach them. 



I( 



VIII 

THE TSIMSHEANS 

NOETH of Vancouver Island, the coast Indians 
of British Columbia were, in 1857, the ''Kwa- 
kiutl," the "Bilgula," the "■ Tsimsheans," and 
the "Haidas." 

North of Dixon Entrance, in Eussian Alaska, were the 
"Thliugits" and some tribes of "Haida" descendants. 

The Indians of the interior were called the " Stikeen " or 
" Tinnehs." Up around the Yukon were the " Athabas- 
kans." 

All the coast Indians are far in advance of the plain In- 
dians of the United States and Canada. They have not 
the roving disposition, nor the nomadic habits of these 
Indians. They are, as a rule, industrious, frugal, imita- 
tive, and self-supporting, and have never been objects of 
governmental charity. 

Of all of these Indian peoples, the Tsimshean nation 
ranks the highest, with the Haidas a close second. 

While these different nations have many peculiarities 
in common, especially the totem institution, which here- 
after will be fully described, their language, and even their 
make-up and characteristics are so different, that it is 
evident that they do not spring from the same source, and 
perhaps do not even originally hail from the same country. 

Where the Tsimsheans originally came from, it is im- 
possible to ascertain. Some have thought they could find 
points of contact between them and the New Zealanders. 
Others have believed that they could discover among 

61 



62 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

tliem traces of the peculiarities of the aucieut Aztecs of 
Mexico. Those who associate them, even iu the distant 
past, with the Japanese or the Koreans, certainly do not 
find any very good arguments for their contention. They 
perhaps di'ifted northward long ago from some tropical 
island in the Pacific. I have been told that a legend, the 
details of which now seem to be forgotten, speaks of a 
beautiful island in the sea. which one day suddenly sank 
under the waves — in other words, another Atlantis in the 
Pacific Ocean. 

One of their many different legends about the " flood " 
also particularly accentuates that before they were 
dispersed and driven away by the great flood, they lived 
in a beautiful country, with lovely sunshine, fine large 
trees, and gorgeous flowers. 

The following legend, related by Adolphus Calvert of 
Metlakahtla, may point to a warmer climate, where the 
sun seemed nearer, or to a knowledge of the story of the 
'' tower of Babel," or both. I give it, in this connection, 
for what it is worth : 

" In ages long gone the heavens were much nearer the 
earth than now. The people were afraid to disturb the 
Great Chief. So they only talked in whispers. A 
Tsimshean chief had a son, who was a great thinker. 
He thought very much over all the troubles from which 
his people suffered, and he wanted to help them iu those 
troubles. One night he stayed out in the woods all night, 
and saw away up into the heavens. Then he knew much 
more than he ever did before. Next day he commenced 
to make arrows, and kept on at this till he had over a 
thousand arrows. Then, one clear day, he shot an arrow 
into the heavens with such force that it moved them a 
little liigher. Then he shot another, hit the first one 
right on the head, and pushed the heavens still further 
away. Then they were so far away that he could not 



THE TSIMSHEANS 63 

shoot so far. He then called upon the people, and they 
carried rocks to a small island, high above the sea. 
There they piled the rocks upon the highest peak. So 
he went up on top of the rocks, and shot some more ar- 
rows, until the heavens were moved clear out of sight. 
Then the people were glad, because now they could make 
all the noise they wanted to, without disturbing the 
Great Chief and making him angry." 

Wherever the Tsimsheans may have come from origi- 
nally, we certainly find that they must already have lived 
on the coast south of the Skeena, when Captain Cook vis- 
ited these regions in 1778, or perhaps even earlier than 
that, at the visit of Captain Behring in 1741, or during 
the cruise of the Spanish war-ships in 1774, as one of the 
traditionary legends of the Tsimsheans, related to Mr. 
Duncan by the Kithrahtlas, gives the following account 
of ''Hlie first visit of the Whites " to the coast, which plainly 
refers to one of the war-ships of one of the several expedi- 
tions here mentioned : 

"One day, when my grandfather was a small boy, 
four people from our village were out fishing for halibut. 
There was a great fog, and nothing could be seen. When 
their lines were all down, they suddenly heard a strange 
noise coming from the sea. But the fog was so thick 
they could not discover anything. They thought it was 
some great monster coming in from the sea, up to the 
shore where the village was, so they pulled up their lines 
and paddled to the shore, to tell their people to look out 
for the sea-monster. 

* ' When they came near the shore, the fog lifted, and 
then they saw a big round monster swimming in the sea. 
Trees were growing out of its back, and heads of men 
were hung on the branches of the trees. ^ Then a baby 
monster ' came out of the belly of the big sea-monster, 

^ Blocks. " A boat. 



64 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

and there were tlie heads of many white ghosts sticking 
up from the back of it, and they had long sticks, and 
pushed the water back with them, so the baby monster 
flew towards the shore. 

* ' When it came to the beach, the white ghosts lifted up 
the sticks, and the tears of the salt water crawled down 
the sticks, and fell in the water, with a great drip-drip/ 

"Then the white ghosts went on shore. When the In- 
dians saw them, they were afraid, but the white ghosts 
pointed to their halibut, and the Indians gave them one, 
and they cut it up, and threw the pieces in a round black 
box. 

' ' Then they wanted fire, and an Indian brought two 
sticks to make a fire with, and commenced to rub them 
together. But the white ghosts laughed, and one of them 
took a little dry grass, and something from his pocket, 
and made a big noise, and a flash, and fire came right 
away in the wood. When the Indians saw that they all 
' died.' 2 

"Then they put the black box right on to the fire, and 
it did not burn up, but the halibut was cooked.^ Then 
the Indians ' died ' again. 

" After that, the white ghosts empty a sack of maggots* 
in the kettle. After a while they take the maggots out, 
and put them in a dish, and then they pour over the 
maggots the ' grease of dead people.' * Then they want 
the Indians to eat the maggots and the grease. But the 

* This description certainly indicates that the boat must have be- 
longed to a man-of-war, as it is well known that the oars of such boats, 
when coming to a stop, are always raised up in salute to the command- 
ing officer. It! 

*The Indian expression for amazement. 

" The Indian cooking was always done in square wooden boxes 
•wherein they placed water, and then dropped into it red hot stones. 

* Rice. 
" Blood— Evidently has reference to treacle or molasses. 



THE TSIMSHEANS 65 

Indians run away behind the rocks. Then the white 
ghosts eat the maggots and the grease themselves. 

"When they sit and eat, a goose flies over their heads. 
Then a white ghost takes a long stick, and points it at 
the goose. Then there is a big noise, and a small smoke, 
and the goose falls down, and is dead. When the Indians 
see that, they '■ die ' again. But the chief and his slaves 
now come down to the beach. And the chief was painted 
black and red. And he stood up right before the white 
ghosts, and he looks wild at them. And the blood of 
many men makes his eyes very red. And when the 
white ghosts see his red eyes, then the white ghosts 
'die.' And when the chief dances and sings the war- 
song, and sings very hard and high, then the white ghosts 
* die ' again." 

The native who told Mr. Duncan this story desired to 
impress on him the contrast between the first visit of the 
Whites to their home, and the visit of Mr. Duncan, at 
which latter event he said that none of the Indians " died." 

Many stories could be told from the traditions of the 
Tsimsheans, of their cruel wars with the Indians of the 
Interior, wherein their chief, Htrakats (Thunder), seems 
to have proven especially valiant and successful, and of 
their battle with the Alaska Indians, who were finally 
driven back across Dixon Entrance, never to show them- 
selves again, except for the peaceful purposes of trade, 
also of their warfare with the Nass Indians, which seems 
to have terminated in 1829 by a drawn wager of battle 
between two chosen representatives of the contending 
tribes, in which duel the Tsimsheans were victorious, and 
by which the feud between them was settled. But we 
must hasten on to more interesting topics. 



IX 

MODE OF LIVING 

NOW must be told how these people lived at the 
time the Gospel first came to them. 
The spring and summer was their work time. 
The long winter months were mostly devoted to fun and 
frolic, feasts and gambling, potlatches, dances, and med- 
icine work, about which more anon, and to, now and 
then, a murder. 

They had for years been the traders of the coast. The 
furs of the interior, which, before the white people came, 
they used to cover their nakedness with, when they 
deemed it necessary to cover it at all, they bartered from 
the inland Indians, to whom they, in turn, furnished 
food, dried and smoked fish, and the wonderful oolakan 
oil, in large enough quantities to last them all winter, if 
they had furs enough, for nothing was given without the 
proper equivalent, and perhaps a little more. It is said, 
that in trading their women always had the deciding 
word, and that they could always be relied upon to make 
clever bargains. And this in a day when there were no 
bargain counters around. 

After the Whites came to Fort Simpson, the Hudson's 
Bay Company blankets took the place of the furs for cov- 
ering their bodies, but only with this difference in the 
trading, that they bartered furs so obtained from the In- 
terior to the Hudson's Bay Company for blankets and 
other of the white man's goods, which they could use. 
They did not permit the interior Indians to trade directly 

66 



MODE OF LIVING 67 

with the company at all, insisting on their right to act as 
middlemen, and great are the bargains they sometimes 
made, if reports are true. But that was necessary if they 
would hold their own with the company, which cheated 
them wofully in paying for their furs. There was no cur- 
rency at the coast until the Whites came, when the com- 
pany's two-point blankets became the commonly recog- 
nized medium of exchange, and were generally considered 
to represent $2.50 in value. Prior to that time, the marten 
or sable skin had generally been treated as the unit, and 
it still, after the company's advent, retained its position 
as the common fractional currency. It was taken at the 
company's store for a quarter of a dollar in trade, and 
when the prices of the company's goods are considered, I 
think it may safely be said that the company got the best 
of them both going and coming. 

A piece of soap of a finger's thickness brought four 
martens, or fifty minks, for a mink skin was then only 
worth two cents. 

Sea otter skins, now $700 and more, at this time in the 
company's store at Fort Simpson, brought only from $10 
to $12 in goods, which, at the ruling prices, probably 
meant all the way from $2 to $4 in actual values. 

The food, which these Indians subsisted upon, they 
largely drew on the sea for. True, once in a while, a 
deer, a mountain goat, or a wild fowl would furnish a few 
meals. Dried wild berries also, at times, might be found 
on the mat. (There was no table.) But the staple food, 
year in and year out, for old and young, was fish — salmon 
and halibut, fresh, smoked and dried, fish roe (salmon 
and herring), clams and crabs, cuttlefish (a great delicacy), 
seaweed, and all of it seasoned and enriched by the won- 
derful oolakan oil. 

When the first of March came, the Indians of the dif- 
ferent tribes at Fort Simpson broke camp, left the houses 



68 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

untenanted and unlocked, and came, with their families, 
to occupy, for a month or two, their ancient fishing 
grounds on the banks of the Nass Eiver, forty -five miles 
or so farther north, where the waters of the great river 
tumble over the bar into Portland Canal. 

They know that this is the time for the oolakan to run 
up the river, and it is important to be at hand at the 
great event. 

The oolakan, or candle fish (^/iafeic/rf%sj;ffci^CMs), a won- 
derfully sweet fish to eat when freshly caught, is in appear- 
ance a good deal like a smelt, most of them about twelve 
to fourteen inches, and is said to contain more oil than 
any other known fish. In the frying-pan it will melt 
away like a lump of butter, and, M'hen dried and provided 
with a wick, it will burn like a candle. Hence its name. 

Between the 16th and 20th of March, each year, you 
can see them come by the million, yes, by the billion, up 
Portland Canal, and hustle over the bar of Nass River, 
their great stamj)ing ground. 

At the time we are now interested in, their coming fur- 
nished a great sight. On the banks of the river, and in 
hundreds of canoes near and on the bar, from five to 
eight thousand Indians, all crying and yelling: ''You 
are all chiefs, every one of you ! " as they attempt to fill 
their canoes with the shining, silvery fish. The sea-gulls, 
by the thousands, swinging above the incoming shoals, 
jabbering and chattering, moving back and forth, up and 
down, all the day long. Further down, the spring sal- 
mon, which are after the oolakans, as well as the gulls and 
the Indians, ^'umping out of the water in their mad 
chase. After them again, a little further down, are lurk- 
ing the cunning hair seals, watching their chance ; and 
still further away you see the spouting of the large, fin- 
back whales, wliich follow the seals, only to be followed 
in their turn by the orca, the whale-killer, which will 



MODE OF LIVING 69 

rip open and disembowel one of these sea-monsters in the 
twinkling of an eye, with its fin, which is as sharp as a 
razor. 

And this glorious sight, and all this incessant battle, 
keeps on for a month or more. Thousands and thousands 
of bushels of the little '' chief" fishes are landed, and put 
into wooden kettles, which are filled with water made to 
boil by red hot stones dropped into the receptacles. The 
grease of the boiling fish floats on top. The remainder 
of the fishes, piping hot as they are, are scooped up into 
pine-tree-root baskets, and then the boiling hot mass is 
pressed against the bare breasts of the women, till the 
grease, and every drop of it, has been squeezed out. The 
oil must be pressed out in no other way. It would 
' ' shame ' ' the fish to treat it otherwise. 

"With the precious grease, or oil, so obtained, the In- 
dians now return to their homes at Fort Simpson, from 
where, during the early summer months, the halibut 
banks lure the fishermen to obtain a further supply from 
the ocean's storehouse. And they are seldom disap- 
pointed. Halibut of from 75 to 250 pounds greedily snap 
at their rudely constructed, but very effective hooks, 
usually baited with a herring or an oolakan. 

When July comes, it is off again, this time to the old 
fishing villages on the Skeena River, where their ances- 
tors, for centuries, have exercised the privilege of catch- 
ing the red salmon, as it is wriggling its way up to its 
breeding ground, to deposit its spawn. 

Here, in a few weeks, not only all necessary for imme- 
diate use, but a full supply for the remainder of the year, 
as well as for trading purposes, is secured, and the whole 
family now turns its attention towards picking and dry- 
ing the wild berries growing in abundance along the banks 
of the river, as well as to curing the salmon caught, by 
smoking and drying it for winter use. 



YO THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The dry salmon is toasted before the fire, like our 
bread, and eaten with oolakan oil. On a pinch, when 
travelling for instance, it can be and is eaten raw. I have 
done so myself, and will say that when one is hungry, 
raw, dried salmon does not taste badly at all. When the 
new catch is in, what remains of the old supply is des- 
troyed, and never eaten. It is then considered out of 
season. 

Then comes, in September, the great mart of the natives 
on the beaches near the fort, where Lieutenant Simpson, 
in 1841, says he saw over 14,000 Indians gathered on the 
beach. And after that is over, come the winter festivities. 

As great masters as they show themselves in the trad- 
ing mart, they are greater masters still on the sea, in their 
wonderful canoes, hollowed out of a single trunk of one of 
the red cedar giants growing along the coast. With their 
paddles and sails, and nothing else, they make these 
canoes fairly fly over the frothing billows, and carry them 
safely through the roughest gales, when many larger 
crafts, with practiced mariners, furnished with compass 
and solid steering gear, have perished and never been 
heard from again. 

The Indians believe that their fish is just as sensitive 
as they are as to any offense to its dignity. 

The salmon is a chief, and must not be brought in contact 
with any metal. It must only be boiled in their wooden 
kettles. If not, it is "shamed " and may refuse to come 
back to its usual haunts. In eating it, they of course use 
only the heaven-given forks and knives, as that will not 
''shame" him. Duncan, when first there, often wit- 
nessed their refusing to sell salmon to the steamer unless 
the steward would permit them to boil it first in their own 
wooden kettles. 

The following legend is characteristic of this supersti- 
tion : 



MODE OF LIVING 71 

"Some boys had 'shamed' a salmon. They caught 
him, cut a slit close to his flu and put gravel and stones 
in the wound so that he could not use his fin, and then let 
him out in the stream again. The poor fellow wriggled 
and suffered, and could not swim with sand and gravel 
down his back. This made the god of the mountain 
angry with the people whose children had shamed the 
salmon, and he spewed fire so that it ran down the moun- 
tainside, and way down into a river where the fire sput- 
tered all around. But a god of another mountain, 
near by, thought it was too bad, so he rolled down a big 
rock, and stopped the fire stream.^ 

'' The people then came together to consult about what 
should be done to propitiate the irate mountain-god, and 
the salmon as well, so he would not ' go back ' on them, 
and they came to the conclusion that the naughty chil- 
dren had to be killed. But when the mothers heard this, 
they raised a rumpus, and would not allow the sacrifice. 
The people then compromised by agreeing, instead, to kill 
the dogs of the village, which were thereupon all sacri- 
ficed and burned as a peace-offering to the salmon." 

^ In the cracka of this mountain there is, to this day, to be found 
deposits of clear alkali, which the Tsimsheans were in the habit of us- 
ing in lieu of soap before Mr. Duncan came. 



X 

PECULIAR CUSTOMS 

BOTH the men and women of this nation, in olden 
times, wore rings in their noses, and rings or 
shells in their ears. The men of rank often wore 
a number of them in the ears. 

The women of rank were provided with a "labrette," 
or ornament of bone, inlaid with abalone shell, two or 
three inches long, and up to an inch wide, which was in- 
serted in an opening in the chin. It came about in this 
way : When a girl reached the age of puberty, she was 
shut up by herself, either in a hut in the forest, or in a 
separate enclosure in the house, for a period of about six 
months. During this period, when no one except her 
mother was allowed to see her, a slit was cut parallel with 
her lower lip, and a little below it. In this slit was in- 
serted a piece of bone. The slit was gradually made 
larger, and a larger ornament inserted. The larger a 
woman's labrette, the higher her rank. Slaves were not 
allowed to wear them at all. A Tsimshean woman would 
never think of appearing before a strange man, or in com- 
pany, without her labrette. Should she accidentally do 
so, she would feel as embarrassed as would one of our 
ladies to-day who might be surprised in undress. 

When the six months were over, it was claimed that 
she had come back "from the moon." A feast was held 
for her, and property was given away. When the guests 
were all gathered in Ihe house, a curtain was withdrawn, 
and the maiden was shown sitting, surrounded by the 

72 



PECULIAR CUSTOMS T3 

''coppers" ^ of the family, or the tribe, and commenced 
to sing a song. This constituted the young lady's " com- 
ing out." She was now marriageable. 

Her marriage was proceeded with as follows : 

The young girls are kei^t very strictly. They must be 
modest, and never look at a young man. Outside the 
house they could appear only with the mother or an older 
sister. 

There was, therefore, a very limited chance for flirta- 
tion, or even courtship. When a youug man desired to 
marry the youug lady, he consulted with his parents, or 
perhaps it is more correct to say that they consulted with 
him when they had found some one they wanted him to 
marry, as the mother of a young man was usually the one 
who looked around to find a suitable bride for him. 

The mother then went to the parents of the girl, and 
told them she would like their daughter for her son, if 
they would agree. The girl's parents never gave an an- 
swer right away. That would look as if they were 
anxious to get rid of her. After listening to what the 
boy's mother had to say, they, without committing them- 
selves in any way, told her that they would consult their 
relatives on the subject. This ended the meeting. After 
a few *' moons," the boy's mother would again call on the 
girl's parents. If their answer was favourable, they 
would now suggest that the youug people wait a year, so 
as to see if they behaved themselves, and that they would 
not "shame" their folks. The engagement thus being 
settled, without the intervention of the young people, the 
boy's mother brought a present to the girl's mother, per- 
haps a basketful of cedar bark, torn up fine like oakum, 
which they use for toweliug, or something of that sort. 

"When , the wedding day finally had been fixed, the 

' "Coppers "are large engraved and hammered shields of native 
copper, heirlooms, and very costly possessions. 



74 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

young man's father and uncles visited the girl's father 
and mother, and gave them presents, generally canoes, 
slaves, and mats. That is, they did not bring them along, 
but promised them by placing a stick in front of the 
father if they meant to give a canoe, and a stone, if they 
meant a slave. If this offering was deemed sufhcieut, the 
recipient would nod his head, and that settled the mat- 
ter. This was really the purchase price which the boy's 
family x^aid for the girl. 

On the wedding day, the young man is seated on a mat 
in the house of the girl's parents, with his parents and 
uncles. The girl's mother would then go to the house, 
where the girl is kept, bring her in, leading her by the 
hand, and take her over to the mat where the young man 
sits. She then seated herself on the mat at his side, but 
without either taking his hand, or even speaking to him. 

This was the whole of the marriage ceremony. 

The procession would now start for the young man's 
home. (If he had no house of his own, his home from 
that time was with his maternal uncle, not with his 
father.) In the procession the bridegroom went first, 
then the bride, then his relatives, and, lastly, hers. A 
feast was now given to the relatives, and, later on, one to 
the leading men of the village. It was now the bride's 
parents' turn to give j)reseuts, the father"generally present- 
ing them with a supply of food, the mother with spoons 
and other household utensils. 

When a child came, the girl's mother gave presents to 
the mother of the young man. 

When a man died, his children went to their mother's 
oldest brother to live, and became his children. The 
dead man's property all descended to his oldest sister's 
oldest son. So did the widow, whom he had to marry, 
and this whether he had a wife already or not. If he did 
not want to marry her, he must give her an indemnity, 



PECULIAR CUSTOMS T5 

when she could marry some one else. When a young 
man, in this manner, got an old wife, it was not unusual 
for him to take a young one, also, about the same time. 
Except in these particular cases, polygamy was not 
practiced. 

Before Duncan came to these people, they cremated 
their dead. The only exception was in the case of the 
medicine-men, who perhaps were considered too tough to 
burn, and who were placed in a sitting position in a box, 
which was either hidden among the branches of a tall 
tree, or deposited on a prominent rock in some lonely spot. 

At the funeral this was the procedure : 

The box containing the corpse was placed on a mat in 
the centre of the floor. The widow and children 
blackened their faces with charcoal or black paint, cut 
their hair short, put on the poorest and worst clothing 
they had, took some old mats which had been thrown 
away, and made head-dresses of them. They then formed 
a procession, the widow leading, then the children, ac- 
cording to their ages, after which came the relatives. 
Then all marched around the box. If the deceased was a 
chief, they sang their famous ^'lemkoy," or funeral 
dirge. This is never sung save at the funeral of a chief, 
and is so sad and melancholy that a strong man is always 
chosen to lead it, as most of the people break into violent 
weeping during the singing. 

If it was not a chief's funeral, an incessant wailing was 
kept up as long as the corpse was in the house. 

After a proper amount of wailing, the box containing 
the body was taken out and placed in the centre of a pile 
of wood, back of the house, and burned. The bones re- 
maining were picked up, ground into dust, and placed in 
a small box, which, if the deceased had a totem-pole, was 
preserved in an opening in the back jjart of the pole. If 
not, the ashes were sometimes placed in a mortuary 



76 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

column, erected for the deceased some time after liis 
death. But as both totem -poles and mortuary columns 
were the exception rather than the rule with the Tsim- 
sheans, in most cases no further attention was paid to the 
ashes of the dead after the cremation. 

The Tsimsheans were very hospitable. The arrival of 
a stranger was always the signal for immediately setting 
before him of the best which the house could afford. 

The winter season was one continuous round of feast- 
ing. Now one chief, then another, made a feast, and 
every imaginable pretext was made use of as an excuse 
for a feast, and this not only to give them a chance to 
show their hospitality, but just as much to furnish an op- 
portunity "to show off." 

If there was anything that the Tsimsheans prized more 
than a parade and display of what they had, it must have 
been the observation of the strictest rules of etiquette. 
They were worse sticklers on etiquette than the Lord 
Chamberlain of a European Imperial Court. 

If a boy should have his ears pierced, or should assume 
a more important family name, or should become what 
they called a '' principal," at once each of these occasions 
called for a feast, or rather several feasts, and, in the lat- 
ter case, also for a " potlatch." 

If a house was to be built, there had to be four differ- 
ent feasts, with plenty to eat, placed before the guests in 
big boxes, sometimes in small canoes, and it all had to be 
eaten, too, or, at least, taken away. These feasts were 
distributed during the course of two years ; but af- 
ter the last feast must come a great "potlatch," which 
consisted in the host making his guests presents of all he 
had in the world of personal property. 

We will witness such a "potlatch" given by a noted 
Tsinishean chief. 

The more display that can be made, and the more 




REGALIA OF A TSIMSHEAX CHIEF 



PECULIAR CUSTOMS 17 

property given away, the greater glory is reflected on the 
tribe. Therefore, all the members of his tribe present to 
him for days all that they possess, copi^ers, slaves, canoes, 
guns, blankets, furs of all kinds, nets, mats, kettles, 
bracelets, necklaces, rings, head-dresses, masks, calico, 
dress-goods, hats, moccasins, and all other things fit 
to give away. 

The first parade and display is now made of what 
these good people give to their chief for him to give 
away to others. 

The day before the great potlatch, they exhibit their 
gifts publicly. Hundreds of yards of calico and cotton 
goods are flapping iu the breeze, hung from house to 
house. Furs are nailed to the doors. Blankets and elk 
skins are carried along the beach by carriers walking iu 
single file. 

The cotton and calico is then brought down to the 
beach, the farther away from the chiefs house the better, 
unrolled to its full length ; a bearer is then secured for 
about every three yards, and now it is carried in triumph 
to the chief's house. 

That, and all the other presents, are to be his now. 
His people have Impoverished themselves. But in an- 
other day he will not be much better off. All of theirs, 
and all of his, will then be gone. 

He and his chief counsellors, and his wife, are already 
apportioning this new property brought to him, among 
those who are to be his guests on the morrow. 

The great day comes, and with it the chiefs and leading 
men of the other tribes, and sometimes of other nations 
or settlements ; but not one of the chief's friends in his 
own tribe. If they are present, it is only as spectators, 
to witness the great sight. Not a yard of calico, or an 
ounce of powder, is given to any of them. The chief is 
seated at the chief's seat, the other great chiefs around 



78 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

him, sitting according to their rank. A herald announces 
the article. The chief, who continuously consults a 
bundle of memorandum- sticks in his hand announces 
the name of the recipient, and with great pomp the gift 
is delivered. 

Though the next morning the chief is as poor as when 
he came into the world, that fact does not bother him a 
bit, for he has experienced the glory of a potlatch, which 
will be spoken of for many moons. 

But do not think for a moment that he is actuated by 
a desire to realize the beautiful sentiment : " It is more 
blessed to give than to receive." Far from it. That 
suffices for his poor tribes-people, who now have to go to 
work to replenish their exhausted exchequer by hard 
labour, excessive industry and hard-fisted economy, and 
who have no other means of regaining their lost property. 
Not so the chief. His giving-away-property is not given 
away at all. It is the Tsimshean way of banking and 
life insurance, moulded into one. He never gives away 
anything which he is not sure to get back with interest 
at the next potlatch which that chief gives. In fact, 
these chiefs siDcnd a good deal of their time in keeping 
track of what they have received from each chief at every 
potlatch, and in calculating what they shall give to each 
in order to return an equivalent, and a little more. 

The home of the Indian chief is not a convenient place 
to keep potted wealth in, so he sets the ball rolling. 
Some of it is here, and some there ; but as time goes on 
it comes back with a little more, now from this chief, 
and then again from another. In other words, his de- 
posit in the bank is cashed out in smaller amounts, as he 
needs it, and a little interest added for the use of it. 
What more cau he require ? 

As to this proceeding being in the nature of a life in- 
surance as well, let the following indicate : 



PECULIAR CUSTOMS 79 

The chief dies, but his wife has the memo sticks, and 
Is posted on all his gifts, and as to who is owing him, and 
how much, and no chief will dare to slight the nephew 
heir, fail to invite him, or to make him the suitable gift 
due to his ancestor, for he well knows that the widow 
keeps a strict account, and as she has married the heir, 
she can keep him posted. Woe to the chief who failed 
to return the gift he owed. Songs would be made about 
him, "shaming" him, and he might just as well seek 
death at once. Life would be unendurable after such a 
deed. He has been guilty of the unpardonable sin, that 
is all. 

It is even suggested that it is in order to enable the 
heir to keep track of these valuable claims, that the 
Tsimshean law requires the nephew to marry the widow, 
although the wise men add, that a young man and an old 
wife, and an old man and a young wife, should ever be 
the rule, because then, in both cases, there is at least one 
wise person in the house. 

It is in these potlatches, and the contributions of the 
common people of the tribe to the chief 's treasury, we 
find the only vestige of taxes or salary jDaid by the people 
to their chiefs. As a chief never does any manual labour, 
he must of course find his living somewhere, and here a 
way is pointed out for him so to do. 

There was another way in which property was disposed 
of, even more foolishly, among these people. It was this : 
When one of them felt himself insulted or aggrieved by 
another, he would, in the presence of the other, destroy 
his own canoe, or other valuable property. The other 
must then, at the risk of being shamed out of countenance 
by the people, destroy the same article belonging to him- 
self. Then the first one destroys another article, and he 
has to follow suit. If he fails, he is ''shamed," and 
practically ostracized. He certainly cannot show his face 



80 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

agaia iu decent society. Many a man has in this way 
been absolutely ruined by a richer enemy. 

Gambling was a national vice of the Tsimsheans. Many 
of their legends have to do with men who gambled away 
all that they possessed — slaves, canoes, coppei-s, wife and 
children. 

At all their festivities, in fact, on all possible occa- 
sions, the Indians painted their faces in a most horrible 
manner. While they perhaps could find an excuse for 
doing so in their continuous exiDOSure to the elements, and 
to the attack of gnats and mosquitoes, the real reason 
undoubtedly was, that, by paintiug their faces, they de- 
sired to make themselves look as terror- striking as pos- 
sible. 

"Lex talionis" was the supreme rule among the 
Tsimsheans, as among all primitive peoples. But retali- 
ation among them took a peculiar form. When a Haida 
Indian had killed a Tsimshean, the law was satisfied by 
killing the first Haida they came across, without regard 
to whether he, or even his tribe, had had anything to do 
with the killing of the Tsimshean, If the man killed was 
a chief, two of the other nation had to pay for it with 
their lives. Then, and then only, was the slate wiped 
clean. If one of the two killed in retaliation was a chief 
or leading man, they had overshot the mark, and some 
more killing was due. But a murder, like all other in- 
juries, could be settled for by paying an indemnity. 
Every imaginable injury had a fixed compensatory 
schedule-price in blankets. 

It would sometimes bother a Philadelphia lawyer to 
figure out the liability in these cases. Whether the 
wrong-doer intended his act, or it was wholl.y accidental, 
did not cut any figure at all, except, possibly, as to the 
anion ut of the compensation. If an Indian shot at my 
decoy, and thereby lost his cartridge, I was bound to pay 



PECULIAR CUSTOMS 81 

him the price of the cartridge. It has even been held 
that the owner of a stolen rifle had to pay indemnity to 
the relatives of the burglar who stole it, and accidentally 
shot himself with it, for his death. 

If a man is attacked by a savage dog, and kills him in 
self-defense, he must i)ay the owner for the dog. 

A small trading schooner, in a furious gale, once res- 
cued two Indians from a sinking canoe, which had been 
carried out to sea. The canoe was so large that it could 
neither be carried nor towed, and the natives themselves 
cut the worthless craft adrift. When the captain landed 
the men at their village, they demanded of -him payment 
for the canoe. We cannot blame him for not seeing it in 
that light. But still it was a perfectly correct position to 
take, from the Tsimsheau point of view. 

If a child is killed, the indemnity goes to its mother's 
brother, not to the father. A native, by an unfortunate 
accident, once killed his own son, and had to pay indem- 
nity for his life to his wife's brother, or be killed, himself 
to balance the account. 

A short time before Duncan's arrival the Fort came 
near being destroyed by fire. The smoke-house, directly 
back of the men's quarters, had caught fire, and, before 
it was discovered, all of that part of the Fort was in flames. 
During the excitement, some two hundred Indians had 
come into the Fort, helping to carry water from the sea. 
Finally, one of them suggested carrying a canoe up on 
the gallery, and fill it with water, and, when full, tip it 
over the building on fire. This was done, and undoubt- 
edly saved the Fort from destructioii. When the fire had 
been put out, the Indians refused to leave, claiming that 
the Fort belonged to them now, inasmuch as, if it had not 
been for them, it would have been burned. The issue 
would perhaps have been doubtful if the captain had not 
succeeded in bribing one of the chiefs, who made a speech, 



82 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

and induced them to give up their claim. This chief, 
forever afterwards, went by the name of "Spokes," a 
title well earned by his effective argument. 

Until their contamination by the Whites, the Tsimsheans 
stood high in the moral scale. They were well known 
all over that part of the country for their honesty 
and uprightness. Theft was entirely unknown among 
them. 

They had no intoxicating liquor of their own, and did 
not know what intoxication was until the white man 
brought the curse among them, and taught them how to 
distil the "Hoochinoo," the vilest concoction imaginable. 

With the fire-water came destruction to both soul and 
body of the poor victims. 

The Tsimsheans did raise a kind of substitute for to- 
bacco, which they did not, however, use for smoking, 
only for chewing. 

Before the white men came among them, lapses from 
virtue on the part of their women were practically un- 
known. Unfaithfulness on the part of a wife was pun- 
ishable by death, the injured husband executing the law 
himself, and in addition collecting a heavy indemnity 
from the partner in her crime, or taking revenge upon 
him by killing him. When the Whites came to the coast, 
the sobriety and honesty of the men, and the purity of the 
women, soon vanished. After a while it became the 
fashion for the Tsimsheans to bring their wives, daughters 
and nieces, by the canoe-load, to Victoria, where they 
would rent them out for prostitution, without in any man- 
ner perceiving the moral obliquity of the act. Did not 
the white people do it ? 

When Mr. Duncan had been at the Fort for a year or 
two, an Indian one day came to him quite excited, and 
wanted him to go for some men on a schooner in the har- 
bour. When Duncan asked him why, he coolly said : 



PECULIAR CUSTOMS 83 

" They have had my two wives on board all night, and 
will not pay for them." 

" You scamxD you, why did you let your wives go? " 
''Because they promised to pay me for them." 
It is needless to say that Mr. Duncan did not go for 
them. Instead, that particular Indian received the finest 
tongue-lashing he had ever had. 

Through the influence and evil example of many bad 
white men, the Tsimsheans had been hurled from the 
lofty position of happiness and innocence which they had 
once occupied. Through the loving influence, and God- 
fearing example, of one white man, were they to be again 
restored to the heights where they once soared, and that 
from the deepest depths of degradation. 



XI 

THE TOTEMS AND CLUBS 

WE have already seen that the 2, 300 Tsimsheans 
living at Fort Simpson were divided into 
nine different tribes, living each in their own 
separate village, close by each other. 

But the bond of the Tsimshean nation was not the only 
one uniting the different tribes. In every tribe were 
found members of the same four different clans or crests, 
the ties and relations of these clans being much more in- 
timate and binding than the tribe relation. The name 
given to this relation is '' totem." We find it not only 
permeating the Tsimshean nation, but also all the other 
Indian communities on the Northwest coast, with prac- 
tically the identical crests in each. Yea, we are told that 
the same clan division is found among the aborigines 
in the Southern Sea, as well as among some of the natives 
of the South American continent. 

The forest of totem-poles which greets the eye of the 
traveller all along the coast of Southeastern Alaska, and 
which, by their grotesque carving and painting, furnish 
so great an attraction to him, is an outcropping and an 
evidence of the existence of this clan or crest system all 
around him. 

At first the white peoi)le were inclined to look at the 
totem-poles as idols, and believed them to be objects of 
worship on the part of the Indians. But herein they were 
clearly mistaken. The designs on them were simply 
symbolical of the crests adopted in far back ages to distin- 

84 



II 



THE TOTEMS AND CLUBS 85 

guisli the four social clans into which each tribe was di- 
vided, and the totem-pole, in reality, is a substitute for 
the coat of arms of the European nobleman. 

The use of the totem-pole never became common among 
the Tsimsheans, while the Haidas, the expert carvers of 
the coast, were especially noted for their complex sets of 
totem-poles, and were closely followed by the Thlingits. 

The illustration on a near-by page gives an idea of the 
forest of totem-poles in a Haida village. At Fort Simp- 
son, the headquarters of the Tsimshean nation, there was 
never, at any time, more than eight or ten totem-poles, 
all told. The Tsimsheans, instead, some time painted 
the animals of their totems on the front wall of their 
houses, and every household utensil and treasure chest, 
as well as every box in which the winter food was stored, 
bore upon it evidences of the family's totem, carved or 
painted, as the case might be. 

As it is important on a subject like this to have an 
authoritative explanation, and as no man on the North- 
west coast could be a more absolute authority on every- 
thing in connection with the Indians than Mr. Duncan, I 
will reproduce what he has written on the totem subject 
in The Metlakahtlan, No. 4, for the month of November, 
1889: 

" The names of the four clans, in the Tsimshean language, are 
— Kishpootwadda, — Canadda, — Lacheboo, and — Lackshkeak. 

" The Kishpootwadda, by far the most numerous here- 
abouts, are represented symbolically, by the grizzly bear on 
land, the finback whale in the sea, the owl in the air, and the 
rainbow in the heavens. — The Canadda symbols are the frog; 
the raven ; the starfish ; and the bullhead. — The Lacheboo 
take the wolf and the heron for totems. — The Lackshkeak the 
beaver, the eagle, the halibut, and the dogfish. 

"The creatures I have just named, are, however, only re- 
garded as the visible representatives of the powerful and 
mystical beings, or Genii, of Indian mythology. And, as all of 



86 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

one group are said to be of the same kindred ; so, all the mem- 
bers of the same clan, whose heraldic symbols are the same, 
are counted as blood relations. Strange to say, this relation- 
ship holds good, should the persons belong to different, or 
even hostile, tribes, speak a totally different language, or be 
located thousands of miles apart. On being asked to explain 
how this notion of relationship originated, or why it is per- 
petuated, in the face of so many obliterating circumstances, the 
Indians point back to a remote age, when their ancestors lived 
in a beautiful land ; and where, in some mysterious manner, the 
creatures, whose symbols they retain, revealed themselves to the 
heads of the families of that day. 

"They then relate the traditional story of an overwhelming 
flood, which came and submerged the good land, and spread 
death and destruction all around. 

"Those of the ancients who escaped in canoes, were drifted 
about, and scattered in every direction, on the face of the 
waters ; and where they found themselves after the flood had 
subsided, there they located, and formed new tribal associa- 
tions. Thus it was that persons related by blood became 
widely scattered from each other ; nevertheless, they retained, 
and clung to the symbols, which had distinguished them and 
their respective families before the flood ; and all succeeding 
generations have, in this particular, sacredly followed suit. 
Hence it is that the crests have continued to mark the offspring 
of the original founders of each family. 

"As it may be interesting to know to what practical uses the 
natives apply their crests, I will enumerate those which have 
come under my own notice. 

" (i) As I have previously mentioned, crests subdivide 
tribes into social clans, and a union of crest is a closer bond 
than a tribal union, 

" (2) It is the ambition of all leading members of each clan 
in the several tribes to represent by carving, or painting, their 
heraldic symbols on all their belongings, not omitting even 
their household utensils, as spoons and dishes : and on the death 
of the head of the family, a totem-pole is often erected in front 
of his house by his successor, on which is carved and painted, 
more or less elaborately, the symbolic creatures of his clan, as 
they appear in some mythological tale or legend.^ 

• As before stated, thia waa only to a very limited extent applicable 
to the Tsimsheans. 



THE TOTEMS AND CLUBS 87 

" (3) The crests define the bonds of consanguinity, and per- 
sons having the same crests are forbidden to intermarry ; that 
is, a frog may not marry a frog ; nor a whale marry a whale ; 
but a frog may marry a wolf, and a whale may marry an eagle. 

" Among some of the Alaskan tribes, I am told, the marriage 
restrictions are still further narrowed, and persons of different 
crests may not intermarry, if the creatures of their respective 
clans have the same instincts ; thus, the Canadda may not 
marry a Lackshkeak, because the raven of the one crest and the 
eagle of the other, seek and devour the same kind of food. 
Again, the Kishpootwadda may not marry a Lacheboo, because 
the grizzly bear and wolf, representing those crests, are both 
carnivorous.' 

"(4) All the children take the mother's crest, and are in- 
corporated as members of the mother's family ; nor do they 
designate, or regard, their father's family as their relations. A 
man's heir and successor, therefore, is not his own son, but his 
sister's son. And, in the case of a woman being married into a 
distant tribe, away from her relations, the offspring of such 
union, when grown up, will leave their parents and go to their 
mother's tribe, and take their respective places in their 
mother's family. This law accounts for the great interest 
which natives take in their nephews and nieces, which seems to 
be quite equal to the interest they take in their own children. 

" (5) The clan relationship also regulates all feasting. A 
native never invites the members of his own crest to a feast. 
They being regarded as his blood relations, are always welcome 
as his guests ; but at feasts which are given only for display, so 
far from being partakers of the bounty, all the clansmen, 
within a reasonable distance, are expected to contribute of 
their means, and their services gratuitously, to make the feast a 
success. On the fame of the feast hangs the honour of the 
clan. 

"(6) This social brotherhood has a great deal to do with 
promoting hospitality among the Indians, a matter of immense 
importance in a country without hotels or restaurants. 

"A stranger, with or without his family, in visiting an In- 
dian village, need never be at a loss for shelter. All he has to 

* While even at the present day the Tsimsheans very rarely, if at all, 
marry within the confines of their clan, the further restriction on mar- 
riage, in the text given, never did apply to them. 



88 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

do is to make for the house belonging to one of his crest. 
There he is sure of a welcome, and of the best the host can af- 
ford. There, he is accounted a brother, and treated and 
trusted, as such. 

" (7) The subdivision of the tribes into their social clans, 
accounts in a measure for the number of petty chiefs existing in 
each tribe, as each clan can boast of its head men. The more 
property a clan can accumulate, and give away to rival clans, 
the greater number of head men it may have. 

" (8) Another prominent use, made by the natives of their 
heraldic symbols is, that they take names from them for their 
children ; for instance, Wee-nay-ach, ' big fin ' (whale), Lee- 
tahm-lach-taou, 'sitting on the ice' (eagle), Iksh-co-am-alyah, 
'the first speaker in the morning ' (raven), Athl-kah-kout, ' the 
howler travelling' (wolf). 

" (9) And last, but not least, the kinship, claimed and 
maintained in each tribe by the method of crests, has much to 
do with preventing blood-feuds; and also in restoring peace, 
when quarrels and fighting have arisen. Tribes, or sections 
thereof, may, and do fight, but members of the same social 
clan may not fight. Hence, in contests between two tribes, 
there always remain in each some non-combatants, who will 
watch the opportunity to interpose their good offices, in the in- 
terests of peace and order. In case, too, of a marauding 
party being out to secure slaves, should they find one or more 
of their victims to be of their own crest, such a person would 
be set free, and be incorporated as a member of their family ; 
while the captives of other crests would be held or sold as 
slaves. 

" In writing of these matters, it must be understood that I 
have kept in view the natives in their primitive state. The 
Metlakahtlans, who are civilized, while retaining their crest dis- 
tinctions, and upholding the good and salutary regulations 
connected tlierewith, have dropped all the baneful and heathen- 
ish rivalry, with which the clannish system was intimately asso- 
ciated." 



Besides this intertribal clan division, there was also 
what may, for w ant of a better word, be denominated as a 
club or lodge division into secret social fraternities. 

About one-half of the population at Fort Simpson be- 



THE TOTEMS AND CLUBS 89 

longed to one or other of three such organizations. Those 
who did not were called " amget." 
The names of the three clubs were : 

(1) " Weada-ha-hallied " or the cannibals. 

(2) '' Nukhlam," or the dog-eaters. 

(3) "Miklah," or those who did not eat at all, but 
only practiced dancing and singing. 

Only members of the Kitaudoah and the Kithrahtla 
tribes were eligible for membership in the Cannibal 
Club, but, to the other two, membership was open to any 
member of any tribe. 

The initiation of new members into these orders or 
clubs was carried on during the winter months, with the 
most disgusting ceremonies, and mostly in the open. 
But if any one came upon the members of the club while 
engaged in their secret work in the forest, he was com- 
pelled to become a member, whether he wanted to or not. 

The initiation was generally under the direction of 
some old and experienced medicine-man, but those "who 
were made to ride the goat " were young men, and some- 
times boys, who, before the public ceremonies, had to pass 
several days and nights alone in the forest, where they 
were supposed to receive supernatural gifts, enabling 
them to go through the ordeal awaiting them. 

The proceedings in the different clubs partook of the 
same general character. 

I will let Mr. Duncan speak : 

" Early in the morning the pupils would be out on the beach, 
or on the rocks, in a state of nudity. Each had a place in 
front of his own tribe. Nor did intense cold interfere in the 
slightest degree. After the poor creature had crept about, 
jerking his head and screaming for some time, a party of men 
would rush out, and, after surrounding him, commence singing. 
The dog-eating party occasionally carried a dead dog to their 
pupil, who forthwith commenced to tear it in the most dog-like 
manner. The party of attendants kept up a low, growling 



90 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

noise, or a 'whoop,' which they seconded by a screeching 
noise made on an instrument, which they believed to be the 
abode of a spirit. In a little time, the naked youth would start 
up again and proceed a few more yards in a crouching posture, 
with his arms pushed out behind him, and tossing his flowing 
black hair. All the while, he is earnestly watched by the group 
about him, and when he pleases to sit down, they again sur- 
round him, and commence singing. This kind of thing goes 
on, with several different additions, for some time. Before the 
prodigy finally retires, he takes a turn into every house belong- 
ing to his tribe, and is followed by his train. When this is 
done, in some cases he has a ramble on the tops of the same 
houses, during which he is anxiously watched by his attend- 
ants, as if they expected his flight. By and by he condescends 
to come down, and they then follow him to his den, which is 
marked by a rope made of red bark, hung over the doorway, so 
as to prevent any person from ignorantly violating its precincts. 
None are allowed to enter the house but those connected with 
the art. 

"All I know, therefore, of their further proceedings, is that 
they keep up a furious hammering, singing and screeching for 
hours during the day. 

" Of all these parties, none are so much dreaded as the canni- 
bals. One morning I saw from the gallery hundreds of Tsimshe- 
ans sitting in their canoes, which they had just pushed away from 
the beach. I was told that the cannibal party was in search of 
a body to devour, and if they failed to find a dead body, it was 
probable they would seize the first living one that came in their 
way, so that all the people living near to the cannibal's house, 
had taken to their canoes to escape being torn to pieces. 

" The cannibal, when about to go through the rites of initia- 
tion, is generally supplied with one or more human bodies, which 
he tears' to pieces with his teeth, before his audience. Several 
persons, either from bravado, or as a charm, present their arms 
for him to bite. I have seen several who have been thus bitten." 

It Las been claimed that the cauuibals at these rites 
actually devoured human bodies, and the dog-eaters the 
flesh of dogs. Mr. Duncan himself once believed that 
they did so. But I am happy to be able to say that a 
thorough investigation, and a most searching cross-exami- 



THE TOTEMS AND CLUBS 91 

nation of several Tsimslieans, who have themselves, in 
their youth, belonged to the dog-eating club (there are 
no former members of the cannibal club at Metlakahtla 
now living), has convinced me that these Indians are en- 
titled to be acquitted of this heinous charge. 

They never, — of this I feel certain, — did eat either hu- 
man flesh or dog- meat. It is perhaps bad enough that 
they even pretended to do so. With their teeth they tore 
the flesh from the bones, acted as if they chewed it, and 
pretended to swallow it, but they invariably got rid of it, 
after having kept it in the mouth for a while. This was 
well known to the crowd that surrounded the novice, and 
who, with their bodies, hid him from view when he 
spewed out and got rid of the flesh in his mouth, so that 
the uninitiated among the people did not see that, and, 
therefore, honestly believed that he actually ate human 
flesh or raw dog-meat, as the case might be. 

On other occasions, they had deer-meat, which they, by 
some trick or sleight of hand performance, substituted for 
the human flesh just before the critical moment. 

The object of the rites of both of these clubs was, of 
course, to fill the people with terror at their pretended 
ferocity. 

All of this club work, as well as the medicine work 
mentioned in the next chapter, was called by the Indians 
"hallied." 

The greater portion of the membership of these clubs 
was made up of men and boys, approaching maturity, 
but there were also a few female members in each club. 



XII 

THE MEDICINE-MEN 

THE "Shoo-wansh," ^ the Tsimshean name for a 
medicine-mau (not ''sliaman" as it is frequently 
erroneously given), was a most important charac- 
ter in the Tsimshean, as in every other Indian community. 
He was not, in a strict sense, the doctor of the tribe. The 
use of herbs, both as potions and as applications for 
wounds and swellings, was wholly in the hands of some 
wise old women. They were especially successful in the 
treatment of wounds, and that in spite of the fact that 
their surgery was not very antiseptic. 

The ' ' Shoo- wansh ' ' was generally called in to heal 
only when some one got sick without any readily explain- 
able cause for it, and when, therefore, the lively Indian 
imagination was prone to suspect that some one had be- 
witched the party. For the " Shoo-wansh" was an exor- 
cisor, and able to drive out the evil spirits that had taken 
possession of the poor suffering body. 

He then came with his rattle, and rattled over the sick 
man, who had to be wholly naked during the perform- 
ance, so that the evil spirits should not be able to hide in 
his clothes, but get away readily. There he would work 
away, rattle for dear life, dance about with wild gesticu- 
lations, blow in the patient's mouth and nostrils, pound 
and knead his body, chant, swing to and fro, froth at the 
mouth, and shout and shriek, till the patient said he was 

' The literal translation of this word is: "The blower.'' 
92 



THE MEDICINE-MEN 93 

better, when tlie medicine-man, with great earnestness 
and show, replaced in the body his "soul," which he 
claimed to have caught in the act of leaving it, and to 
have incarcerated in a little hollow bone tube, which the 
medicine-men invariably carried on a string around 
the neck. They claimed to be able to see peoples' souls 
travelling about in the open air, in the shape of flies, 
with long, sharp bills, and often were observed, when walk- 
ing about, to grab for something, and solemnly put it 
away in this hollow bone, carefully closing the cover. 
That was some one's soul that they had caught and im- 
prisoned, and the unfortunate person now had to pay a 
good price to get his poor wandering soul back again. 

If the medicine-man did not do a first-class job, he had 
to return the blankets, or other price he had received for 
his services. Sometimes he might praise his luck if he 
did not have to give up his life, if the patient died. 

Generally, when the case was a serious one, his excuse 
was that some one had bewitched the party. If he gave 
the name of that person, he cleared his own skirts. It 
was generally some man of small importance, a poor de- 
crepit old woman, or a slave, who was thus denounced as 
exercising the power of the "evil eye." 

The following story, told me by Mr. Duncan, will give 
an idea of the modus operandi in such a case : 

"The old chief of the Kitlahns, Neyahshlakahnoosh,^ 
was sick in bed for a long time with an extremely ma- 
lignant carbuncle. He sent for a medicine-man of the 
Tsimsheans, but received no help. There was then a 
medicine-man of great renown among the Thlingits, at 
Tongas, called Neyahshot. He was sent for, and came. 
He rattled over the old chief for a long time, but no im- 
provement was perceived. He finally, as usual, suggested 
that the chief had been bewitched. Some one had got 
Neyahsh " meaus grandfather. 



94 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

hold of some of his clothing, and had buried it with a 
corpse at a graveyard far away. If it did not get away 
from the grave, the old man would die. 

' ' What they must do was to get the clothes away from 
the grave at once, and then kill the sorcerer. Some one 
was immediately desijatched for the clothes. He came 
back with something, which the old chief recognized as 
having belonged to him. It was all a case of make-be- 
lieve. The messenger never had been near either a grave 
or a corpse. He was simply in league with the medicine- 
man. Upon his return, the medicine-man whispered 
solemnly in the chief's ear : 

" ' Nishaes is the man who has brought this upon you. 
You must kill him if you wish to get well.' 

' ' Nishaes was a weak old man, who trembled on the 
verge of the grave. He did not belong to the Kitlahn 
tribe, but lived a quarter of a mile up the beach. He 
was sent for, and came, as the Indians always do, without 
asking the why or the wherefore. 

' ' When he came in, food was of course set before him. 
While he was eating, the chief was lying in bed with a 
loaded pistol in his hand under the blanket, fully deter- 
mined to shoot and kill him as soon as he had finished 
his meal. 

*' One of the chief's counsellors ^ whispered to him : 

"'Don't kill Mshaes. Don't kill him. Ask him to 
pity you.' 

" The chief dropped the pistol, and addressed him : 

" ' Nishaes, have pity on me. Have mercy on me. 
Save me ! ' 

*' ' What do you mean ? * 

** 'Save me !' 

** ' I don't understand you.' 

' The chiefs always had some old wise men around them for advice 
and counsel. 



THE MEDICINE-MEN 95 

' ' ' You have sent this disease upon me. Pity me. Save 
me ! Have mercy on me ! I have suffered so much.' 

'''You are mistaken. I have nothing against you. I 
never had.' 

" ' Yes, you have. You have done it, but now pity me.' 

" ' It is a great big lie ! ' and, in a huff, the old man 
left the house." 

The old chief got well, and, after he was converted to 
Christianity, he often told Mr. Duncan that he was very 
glad he had not killed the old man. He would say : 

"I know it well. The medicine-men are all liars. 
How awful it would have been if I had murdered the poor 
old man, and should have had that on my conscience now." 

In order to obtain his commission, as a " blower," the 
medicine-man or woman, for there were some medicine- 
women also, had to show some miraculous power. This 
they always managed to do by some trick or deceit. 

An old medicine-woman, after her conversion, showed 
Mr. Duncan how she had convinced the people of her 
power to perform a miracle. She had a nice little round, 
green stone, which had been picked up on the beach. 
Producing a vessel filled with water, she asked the peo- 
ple present if they could get her little green stone to float 
in the water. They all tried, but for every one of them 
it sank, of course. Then she took the vessel, and, lo ! 
there the stone floated all right enough. 

That was sufficient to show her supernatural power. 
But, how was it done ? Simply enough. She had a twin 
sister to the stone, made of wood, and in taking hold of 
the vessel, she clandestinely substituted that for the stone. 
That was all. 

A favourite way of showing supernatural power, was 
to kill some one, and restore them to life again. 

One medicine-man showed his power by one evening 
cutting off the chief's head. The head rolled to the floor, 



96 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

and while the blood was squirting hither and thither, it 
jumped from one end of the room to the other. In fact, 
it was a most lively head, and it is no wonder that the 
Indians present ''died." But, still greater was their 
amazement, when the medicine-man put the head back 
again on the body, which had rolled over on to its side, 
and, after fumbling with it for a while, smearing the cut 
with some health-restoring salve and grease, exhibited 
the chief in his normal condition, speaking, laughing, 
and dancing, as if he had never " lost his head " at all. 

The miracle is explained easily enough, when it is con- 
sidered that the chief was an accomplice. 

There was a false head put above his own, which latter 
was concealed by his blanket. By operating a set of 
strings, the false head, which was provided with bags 
containing blood, was made to jump around the floor. 
When the false head was pretended to be put back again, 
it was in reality hidden in the folds of the blanket, while 
the chief's real head made its appearance and commenced 
to talk. 

Another medicine-man had a big box, in which he put 
water, and then dropped in red hot stones, so as to make 
the water boil, after he had put the lid on again. When 
it was boiling, he opened the box and the steam poured 
out. He then lifted up the chief, and threw him into the 
box, and put the lid on again. The people heard the 
chief's voice inside the box, crying with pain, first very 
strongly, and then a little weaker, and still weaker, till 
you could hardly hear it at all. Then it ceased altogether. 
The medicine-man now waited quite a while, so that the 
chief would be boiled very thoroughly. Then he started 
to open the lid, when, suddenly, the chief's voice was 
heard, very strongly and distinctly, coming from the 
forest, away back of the house. When the box was 
opened, there was no chief there, but a great mass of 



THE MEDICINE-MEN 97 

eagle's feathers, which the medicine-man scattered around 
the house. Nor was there any water or stones in the box 
any more. 

In two or three minutes, the chief came in through the 
door, and did not look as if he had been parboiled at all. 

The secret is readily explained. There was a false 
bottom in the box, one end of which stood up against 
the edge of the platform. This end of the box was open, 
or had a trap-door, so the chief, after having spoken 
inside, until it was about time for him to die, could crawl 
out of the box through this opening, and then under the 
platform into the open. 

It is said that every prominent family in the different 
tribes had its own trick, which was its secret, known 
only to the chief and his counsellors. It was part of the 
official business of the latter to instruct the new chief in 
the secrets of the family. 

The awe in which the medicine-men were held, by the 
common people, was very remarkable. When Mr. Dun- 
can, after he had commenced to get a following, ridiculed 
the medicine-men and their practices, his adherents 
begged of him to be careful and not to aggravate them. 
And when he laughed at this, they used to say : 

'' Oh, it is because you don't know, — you don't know." 

Again and again they would beg of him not to put 
himself in their power : 

''When you cut your hair, be sure to burn it all up, so 
they will not get hold of any of it, and bewitch you." 

Again : 

" When you spit, don't spit on the ground. You must 
spit up in the air. If they find some of your spittle, they 
will make you sick, and you will die. Oh, you don't 
know." 

Mr. Duncan, in order to show them that he was not 
afraid, told them that the next time he cut his hair, he 



98 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

would send a lock of it to every medicine- man in the 
camp, so that they could have some to work on. 

His friends were awe- struck at his recklessness, and 
could not be persuaded but that he took very serious 
risks. 

One medicine-man did get hold of an old paper collar, 
which had belonged to Mr. Duncan. He placed it up in 
a tree, and used to go around the tree two or three times 
a day, exercising his rattle upon it, in order to send a 
throat-trouble upon Mr. Duncan. 

As Mr. Duncan suffers from a dry, hacking cough, due 
to some chronic trouble in the bronchial tubes, I sug- 
gested that this medicine-man's actions might perhaps 
explain this chronic throat-trouble. 

With a merry twinkle in his eyes, Mr. Duncan an- 
swered : 

"So it might, yes, only for the fact that I suffered 
from that trouble long before he got hold of my old paper 
collar. ' ' 

It is surprising to see what a hold the influence of 
these medicine-men has taken on the Tsimshean people. 
One of the most intelligent of the Metlakahtla Indians, 
who was converted in his early youth, and, therefore, got 
away from their heathenish influences before they could 
have had a chance to take very deep root in him, told 
me the following story, with all evidences of belief in the 
supernatural powers of the medicine-men. In fact, he 
stated that he did not know what to believe, but that he 
knew for certain that what he told me was the truth : 

''Once, my uncle, who was a great sea-otter hunter," 
he said, "had gone on a hunting trip, with four men, in 
his canoe. While he was gone, there came up an awful 
storin, and great big waves. He was gone many weeks. 
When he did not come back, our people thought he was 
drowned. They went to the medicine-man. He danced. 



THE MEDICINE-MEN 99 

Then lie told tliem to take a stick of wood and go down 
to the beach, — (it was then low tide) — and to put it in 
the ground, where he told them to. They did so. 

" 'Further,' he cried. 

' ' Again : ' Further. ' 

'^ Finally he shouted : ' Now, there — put it down. Hit 
it hard, so it will stay there.' 

* ' When done, he said : 

' ' ' When the tide comes to that point the men will all 
come back again.' 

" The people laughed. They were sure they were dead 
long ago. But, nevertheless, though they did not believe 
in it, they waited for the tide and watched anxiously ; 
and, lo and behold— just as the tide reached the stick on 
the beach, a canoe came around the point, and all the 
five men were in it. They had had no food for many 
days, and were almost starved. The people gave them 
food, and they all came out all right." 

That the Tsimsheans are open to reason in other mat- 
ters, and do not simj)ly accept all that they hear, even if 
it has the sanction of age and tradition, appears from 
the following experience of Mr. Duncan, and is given to 
show that when faith in the supernatural power of the 
medicine-men still clings to them, to some extent, it must 
be due to a most extraordinary cleverness on the part of 
these deceivers : 

Coming down Nass Eiver, Mr. Duncan was invited by 
an Indian chief to go and see in the forest a village which 
their ancestors had inhabited. It was a very long jour- 
ney, but they finally came to a beautiful spot, a basin 
with high mountains all around, except where the trail 
to the river went. The chief told him : 

"Where you now stand, our old chief's house once 
stood. I would like to tell you what our old people say, 
and find out if it is true. They say that the chief's son, 



100 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

a little child, one night cried for water. The mother was 
lazy, and would not get up and get it for him. The moon 
then came down into the room, and asked the boy why 
he cried. He then told the boy to come with him : ' I 
will give you what you want.' 

''The boy took his hand, and he took him with him 
into the heavens. The next morning there was a great 
cry when it was found that the boy was gone. They 
hunted everywhere for him. The next night they saw 
him in the moon, with his little basket in his hand. 
What do you think of it ? Do you think it is true that 
the boy could get up there ? " 

Mr. Duncan would not say that it was false. He knew 
too much for that. He pointed up to the mountain-top, 
and to the pines up there, and said to the chief : 

"Those big pines up there are 150 feet high, and they 
look like little plants. Now, do you think that you 
could see a little boy up there, and, more especially, see 
his basket?" 

''Oh, no, you could not see him at all." 

" Well, then, how do you think you could see a boy, 
and especially his basket, in the moon, which is many 
thousand miles further off than yonder mountain-topi" 

"Well, how our old folks could lie, could they not I" 

That would do for him to say ; not for Mr. Duncan. 



XIII 

THE RELIGION OF THE TSIMSHEANS 

WHENEVEE a Tsimshean saw a phenomenon 
in nature, as a precipice, a tidal wave, etc., 
lie considered it a spirit, a god, and sacri- 
ficed a piece of salmon, or something, to propitiate the 
spirit. 

But these were only sub-deities. He recognized the 
Great Spirit above them all, a good Spirit, the ' ' Heavenly 
Chief." 

His name for Heavenly Chief was ''ShimaugetLahaga," 
the first word being the word used for '' chief" generally, 
as chief of a tribe; and "Lahaga" meaning, literally, 
''above." 

I cannot find any legend distinctly attributing to this 
Heavenly Chief either the creation of the world, or of 
man, except as far as the idea can be made out from the 
following two legends. 

The first one, related to me by John Tait, a very in- 
telligent and lovable Tsimshean Indian of Metlakahtla, 
who in his youth belonged to the dog-eating club, really 
has more to do with earthquakes, and the primitive In- 
dian idea of what causes this natural phenomenon ; but 
curtly recites the creation of the earth by the Heavenly 
Chief, as if it were a well-known and established fact. 
The moral certainty with which the once much-mooted 
question of the earth being fiat is established is amusing. 

Mr. Tait's story is : 

" The Heavenly Chief built the earth. It was round, 

101 



102 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

but flat. He bad big piles at all the coruers of the earth, 
on which it rested, as a house does ; but, after a while, 
the piles got rotten. The Heavenly Chief had a big, fat 
slave. He tells him to put in new corner piles under the 
earth, so that it shall not fall down. He was very strong, 
— this slave. He goes and gets new piles ; then he strikes 
with his big, heavy hammer on one of the old piles, to get 
it out of the way, and he strikes so hard that the earth 
trembles. That is how the earthquake comes." 

The other legend has reference to the creation of man, 
and runs as follows : 

' ' The Heavenly Chief once said, whoever can first get 
a child, the rock over there, or that elderberry bush, of 
that child shall man be. 

"The rock was a little slow, so the elderberry bush be- 
came first with child. Therefore, man is weak and sickly, 
and dies. If the rock had come first, man would have 
been like the rocks, which nothing can destroy." 

Mr. Duncan says that, at Nass Eiver, an Indian showed 
him the rock that tried, but failed, in the race. 

They evidently believed that the Heavenly Chief was 
immortal, that he observed all that was going on among 
men, and that he frequently was angry, and punished 
those who were bad. 

They had very remarkable and advanced ideas about 
prayers, as will be apparent from the following, told me 
by Edward K. Mather, a prominent Metlakahtla Indian : 

"Long before Mr. Duncan came, our people knew and 
spoke of the Heavenly Chief. Before sitting down to 
meals, the father of the family always took a small piece 
of the food, and, putting it on the fire, burned it, and 
said : 

" ' For thee, oh. Heavenly Chief, the first.' 

"My grandfather used to tell me, if I wanted any- 
thing very badly, if I desired success, or anything like 



THE RELIGION OF THE TSIMSHEANS 103 

that, or if I was sick and wanted to get well, to go alone 
out into the forest and speak to the Heavenly Chief about 
it. 

''He said I must be low in spirit, poor in heart, humble 
and meek, and look up and ask the Heavenly Chief, and 
I would get what I asked him for." 

Sometimes, when calamities were prolonged or thick- 
ened, they became enraged against the Heavenly Chief, 
and vented their anger against him, raising their eyes and 
hands in savage wrath to heaven, stamping their feet, and 
saying to him : 

"You are a great slave ! " 

This is the strongest term of reproach their language has. 

It may be here noted that the Tsimshean language has 
no expression for any kind of an oath. When the Tsim- 
shean wants to swear, he must have recourse to the Eng- 
lish language. 

Like almost every people on the footstool, they have 
several interesting legends about the great flood. 

Besides the one already given, I record the following, 
told me by Mrs. Lucy A. Booth, of Metlakahtla, as it is 
somewhat different from the one recited by Mr. Duncan, 
given in another chapter : 

" A long time ago the Tsimshean people lived far away 
from here, and the people were very bad. The Heavenly 
Chief did not like them, and told them to be good, but 
they did not care. Then he got angry, and he sent a big 
tide, bigger than ever had been before, and it raiued 
heavily, so much, indeed, that the people got their 
canoes out, and the tide came up high, so that all the 
mountains were under water, except a big mountain peak 
near Wrangel.^ And there came a big storm, and all the 

' This probably refers to a mountain peak not far from Wrangel, in 
Southeastern Alaska, called "The Devil's Thumb," and said to be 
about 9,000 feet high. 



104 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

little canoes were swamped, only the big ones got through. 
And they tied them up to that peak. And when it came 
low tide again, the Tsimsheaus could not find their way 
back, so they came south to Nass Eiver." 

They had a distinct idea of a life after this. Their 
word for "die" is "sever" or "part" — the same word 
which is used of a rope when it breaks under a strain. 

They fed the dead for some time, till they should be 
able to find food for themselves in the spirit-land. But 
this food was burned in front of the dead, so as to give 
spirit-food to the spirit. 

They claimed that when a person was about to die, he 
could see the great chiefs who had departed before him, 
and who now seemed to stand ready to receive him. 
Even to the present day Mr. Duncan well knows what 
they mean, when they come to tell him that a sick per- 
son has " seen somebody." This is, to them, proof posi- 
tive that he is dying. 

When, at an early day, Mr. Duncan asked them if they 
had any proof that the dead still lived, they told him the 
following "true" story of "The man with the wooden 
wife" : 

"At old Metlakahtla lived a childless couple. They 
loved each other very much, and were always together 
whenever they could be. Everybody spoke of how much 
they loved each other. Once the man went out on a 
hunting trip. He had been gone only three or four days, 
and when he came back it was night, and dark. He saw 
a big fire at the chief's house, and knew there must be 
a feast there. But he was lonesome for his wife, so he 
steered for the beach in front of his own house. 

"After pulling the canoe up, he went into the house. It 
was dark, but at the fireplace he saw his wife, sitting on 
a box. He spoke to her, but she did not answer him. 
When he went up to the fireplace, she turned her face 



THE RELIGION OF THE TSIMSHEANS 105 

away fioni bim, and, when he spoke to her again, she 
still did not answer. 

' ' He then felt very badly, as he understood that his wife 
must have done something wrong, as she dared not speak. 
So he went out again, pushed his canoe into the water, 
and paddled about five or sis miles, when he landed and 
camped for the night. But his heart was heavy, and he 
did not sleep. 

" The next morning, in paddling back to the village, he 
met a canoe coming from there. As is the custom of the 
people, he stopj)ed, and asked them for news. They told 
him that his wife was dead, and that she had been cre- 
mated outside the chief's house the night before. 

"He was very sad, for then he knew that it was his 
wife's spirit he had seen the night before, and not her- 
self, as she was then dead. 

" After that he always lived alone, and never married 
again, though he was a young man. 

*' After a while he got a block of wood, and carved out 
of it an image of his wife, sitting down on the box as he 
saw her that night, and everybody said it was an exact 
likeness of her face and figure. 

*' This wooden woman he kept with him in his house, 
and also took her with him in his canoe wherever he 
went." 

The Tsimsheans had very pronounced ideas of reincar- 
nation, and of what might be called soul -transmigration. 

Numerous legends go to substantiate this claim. One 
is to the effect that a woman had a relative who was shot 
in the breast in a fight. Shortly after, she gave birth to 
a son with a red spot on his breast at the identical place 
where the relative had been shot. She and her people 
were positive that the old man had come back to life 
again in that baby boy. 

Another woman had an uncle who died. Soon after 



106 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

she gave birth to a boy with a peculiar mark on his 
tliumb, like one which the uncle had. 

Sebassah, a Tsimshean chief, had a brother killed in a 
fight by a blow from a spear, which tore the flesh from 
his shoulder. His niece shortly afterwards dreamed that 
she saw her uncle, and soon after gave birth to a boy, 
who had a mark on his arm like a wound, in the same 
place where her uncle was fatally hurt. 

But a more remarkable story is this : 

''The Tsimsheans once made a raid on a village up 
Skeena Eiver, and killed all the inhabitants. Only one 
man escaped. He ran up into the mountains, and was 
making his way to a neighbouring village, to tell of the 
fate of his friends, when he came to a clear lake on the 
top of the mountain. Being thirsty, he took a drink, 
and at once became unconscious. 

"The next thing he knew he was lying on his mother's 
lap, a little baby. He could not talk at all, but he re- 
membered well about the fight, and about his running 
away. 

" It was then found out in some way that he really was 
the first man slain in the fight. In order to test whether 
he really was that man, he, when he grew up, went to 
dig in a place where he remembered to have buried some 
gambling tools shortly before the fight, and, right enough, 
there he found them, just where he had hidden them." 

They also have a clear idea of a future punishment. 
They think that a bad man is punished by getting food 
which is out of season — for instance, salmon, after the 
proj^er season, which no Tsimshean will eat when he has 
his choice. 

Tlie Tsimshean worships the moon. When it comes 
forth in the night, he holds up his hand, and says : 

"Alio quathleay '' ("we can see you walking," or 
" you walk in our night "). 



1 



THE RELIGION OF THE TSIMSHEANS 107 

Mr. Duncan tells how he once witnessed an enactment 
of the moon's phases : 

" One night — it was a dark and cloudy one, — as the tide was 
at its lowest, one of the clubs of the ' Hallied ' congregated in 
a house, and rushed to the shore with a great noise. (Their 
noises are never yelling only, but something different for differ- 
ent things, like college yells.) I was out on the gallery of the 
fort, and saw the shadows moving. Then appeared on the 
shore, some distance from the gathering, a moon, — at first, it 
was at the quarter, then it waxed larger until it was half, then 
three-quarters, and then full. Then a man appeared in it. 

" I think that it was made of thin deer skin, like parchment, 
with a light inside. 

" The moon then pretended to move down towards the 
crowd. At this all the Indians commenced to cackle. It 
sounded like the yelping of a pack of wolves. All at once, 
the man in the moon answered them, I thought. Then the 
moon waned, and finally disappeared altogether, and the In- 
dians rushed back again to the house with horrible yells." 



XIV 

THE SON OF THE HEAVENLY CHIEF 

WHILE legends, sliowiug the consciousness, on 
the part of the savage mind, of the existence 
of a Supreme Being, are of more or less fre- 
quency among most aborigines, I doubt whether any 
other heathen nation can produce evidences, like those of 
the Tsimsheaus, of a communication, in some manner or 
form, of the story of the White Christ. 

There are any number of their legends that occupy 
themselves with the mission on earth of the son of the 
Heavenly Chief, and the characteristics of this God -sent 
friend of the people, correspond so wonderfully with those 
of our blessed Saviour, that it hardly seems possible 
for them thus to have been able to picture the Man of 
Galilee, just as He wandered about on earth, if those 
who first drew the picture had not seen Him with their 
own eyes, or received their information from some one 
who had. 

Mrs. Booth, a full-blooded Tsimshean at Metlakahtla, 
told me that her mother had related to her, when a little 
girl, the following : 

"At first it was entirely dark. There was no light in 
the world. The people could see nothing, but were grop- 
ing around in a continual night. Then, the sou of the 
Heavenly Chief came down to earth, and the people com- 
plained to him that it was so dark. He said he would 
help them, and then light came. He travelled around 
for a long time, and helped the people in their trouble. 

108 



THE SON OF THE HEAVENLY CHIEF 109 

He was so kind and good, and the people loved him very 
much." 

But, still more wonderful apj^ears the story of ^^ Tlie 
Battle between Good and JSvil,^' as Mr. Duncan, who has 
given it to me, calls the following legend. 

Two of the natives have, independently of Mr. Duncan, 
and of each other, related the same story, with only 
enough slight variations in the phraseology to prove that 
they each had received it from a different source. 

The story, as told me by Mr. Duncan, runs as follows ; 

"Once there were only two villages of people in the 
world, a great river flowing between them. They were 
constantly at war, and the feud was so strong that, 
finally, everybody in one of the villages was extermi- 
nated, except an old woman, named Kowak, and her 
daughter. 

" Kowak was very anxious again to populate her extin- 
guished village, which could only be done by raising up 
children to her daughter. But, how was this to be done 1 
It was, of course, out of the question to marry her to 
any man in the inimical village, and the men in that 
village were the only ones alive in the world. So Kowak 
turned to the animal kingdom. She would spend her 
days and nights in the forest, crying out incessantly : 

"'"Who will marry Kowak' s daughter?' repeating it 
over and over again. 

"Finally, a little red squirrel peeped out from among 
the branches of a spruce, and said : 

" 'Good woman, I will marry Kowak's daughter.' 

" 'Well, then, son-in-law-elect, if you marry Kowak's 
daughter, what will be your aim in life ? To what will 
your energies be directed ? ' 

"'Oh, I will scramble up the trees, and gather the 
cones, and throw them down.' 

" 'No, son-in-law-elect, you will have to give up the 



110 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

idea of marrying Kowak's daughter. You wiU not fill 
the bill at all.' 

"Next came the bear, — the same question was put to 
him. His answer was : 

" 'I will bellow and growl, and scare everybody. Lie 
in wait for the animals in the forest, and kill them, and 
catch the salmon, as they are jumping up the stream.' 

" The same reply was given to him. 

"The deer next, and then others offered their services. 
The inquiry and the answer were similar, each animal 
showing that its aim in life would be only a selfish exhi- 
bition of its own narrow conception of the enjoyment of 
life, and the satisfaction of its animal craving. 

^ ' Then, as Ko wak cried in the forest one day, there 
appeared before her a person in shining clothes, with a 
beautiful face, and kind, lovely eyes. It was the son of 
the Heavenly Chief. 

" 'I will marry Kowak's daughter, good woman,' said 
he. 

'■ ' ' Oh, beautiful prince ! Heaven bless you, who will 
marry Kowak's daughter.' 

"The same question was then put to him. 

"He answered : 

"'My aim in life will be to destroy the enemies of 
Kowak's deserted village.' 

' ' ' Oh, you are a man after my own heart. You shall 
indeed marry Kowak's daughter.' 

' ' ' But my wife must go with me to heaven, and live 
there. I cannot leave her down here.' 

' ' ' All right. I expected that. But may I not go with 
you ? I would so like to live near my only daughter — 
all that is left me of family, parents, husband, and chil- 
dren. It will be so lonely for me here.' 

" 'Well, tluit depends on yourself. But I doubt that 
you will be able to do so. Still, we will try.' 



THE SON OF THE HEAVENLY CHIEF 111 

" He took his wife in his arms, and told the mother to 
hold fast by his shoulders. 

'^ 'But, as we rise up,' he said, 'if you would go to 
heaven, you must not look down. Look up, or at me, 
all the time. If you look down once, you will never get 
there.' 

"Up they rose, slowly, towards heaven, but when they 
had got up into the clouds, the old lady could not help 
throwing just one glance down to earth, and at once her 
hold on the prince loosened, and she sank and sank, and, 
finally, she lauded in the branches of a tree, and there 
she stuck fast, and she now moaned from pain and 
repentance. That is what you hear moaning in the 
branches of the trees when the wind blows. 

"By and by, three beautiful sons came to the daugh- 
ter. They grew up, and became stronger and more beau- 
tiful every day. The time neared when their father 
wanted them to go down and destroy the inimical vil- 
lage. In preparation for this, they built each a fine 
house. One day, one of the houses commenced to sink, 
and it struck the earth with a great noise ; so did the 
next, and the next. 

" In the morning the chief of the inimical village woke 
up and rubbed his eyes : 

" ' What, do I not see smoke in Kowak's deserted vil- 
lage ? What can it be ? ' 

" He gathered his counsellors together to advise him 
what to do. They determined to send a slave over there. 
He went, and came back filled with awe, and gave the 
most vivid description of what he had found. 

" 'Oh, there are three fine men there. They treated 
me splendidly. They were so kind and nice. And there 
are the finest houses you ever saw.' 

"The council was again called together. They then 
determined to send the three young men a challenge to 



112 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

come and gamble with them. Two of them accepted 
the challouge. The third one refused to gamble, but 
said he would come along anyway. 

'' They came, and the game commenced. The one who 
took no part was especially a giant, with strong muscles 
and fine arms. They won the game. The chief and his 
followers got mad, and rose up to slay them. Then there 
was a great battle. In the end, every one was slain by 
the heavenly boys. ' ' 

Mr. Duncan's explanation of this legend is, that it 
represents the battle between good and evil. 

Evil and sin first win. It seems as if the good had no 
chance at all. But then it becomes joined to the Son of 
God. He comes to redeem the world, and help good in 
its battle against sin and evil. 

The old lady, when she sinks back to earth, represents 
the flesh, which cannot overcome temptation, and, there- 
fore, cannot enter heaven's halls. While the spirit of 
good in man, "the bride," is in the arms of Christ, and 
attains the blessings of heaven. 

In the end comes the triumph of good over evil, and the 
final uprooting of evil, as a result of the union between 
Christ and the spirit of man. 

"It is a beautiful legend," said he. "When I first 
heard it, it struck me that these Indians must have had 
some information as to the Christ. We cannot explain 
how. But the story of the Saviour, as we know it, must 
have come to them in some mysterious way." 

In order to show that they were not only thoroughly 
imbued with the meek and lowly disposition of the Son of 
God, and with the idea that He assumed, when here, the 
role of a servant to man, but that they had also received 
a correct impression of His divine power, evidencing it- 
self in wonderful miracles, I give the following story of 
Tezoda, the son of the Heavenly Chief, as told by Mrs. 



THE SON OF THE HEAVENLY CHIEF 113 

Josei)li Neyalishack, a venerable old Tsimshean woman, 
residing at Metlakalitla, who prides herself on being one 
of Tezoda's direct descendants. 

Her story is as follows : / 

' ' Once a Tsimshean chief, and the one next to him in 
rank, each had a daughter. The chief's daughter was 
beautiful. The other was lame, and homely. 

' ' The chief kept his daughter shut up from everybody, 
as he did not want her to marry any one of inferior rank. 
So the Heavenly Chief took pity on the maiden, and sent 
his son down to woo the fair one. 

"The name of the son of the Heavenly Chief was 
Tezoda. When he came down to earth, he brought with 
him a slave, named Hallach. They camj)ed in the bush 
outside the village, and the first night Tezoda went alone 
to visit the maiden. Now, he was a wonder-worker 
(' Nock-nock '),' so he went into the girl's room through a 
knot-hole in the wall. The next night he sent Hallach, 
in order to get his opinion of the girl. As Hallach had 
no superuatural powers, he had to get inside by slipping 
in after those who lived in the house. 

"He remained all night in the house. This made the 
chief angry. So he said that he and the girl should get 
married. As the girl preferred him to Tezoda, she con- 
sented, and the wedding took place at once. 

"Now, it was the custom that a son-in-law should get 
the wood, and do other work for his father-in-law, so 
Hallach was sent with a large canoe, and a number of 
boys, for fire-wood. 

' ' He brought back a very poor kind of wood ; so wet that, 
when it was laid on the fire, it put it out. This made 
Hallach feel ashamed, so he said he had a slave, named 

* The Tsimshean name for all supernatural power, as well as for the 
person who has such power. 



114 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Tezoda, in tlie bush back of the village, whom he wished 
to have brought in to do the menial work. 

''So they fetched Tezoda, who came, seemingly as a 
slave to his own former slave, Hallach. 

"As a slave, he had to sleep near the door. During 
the night, the chief's wife awoke, and saw the j^lace 
around where Tezoda slept lighted up with a great white 
light. So she made up her mind that he was no slave 
and thought she would watch him. 

" The next day Tezoda was sent for fire- wood. He took 
a big canoe, and a number of women, and started out. 

"On the way, they saw a seal put its head out of the 
water, and he asked them if they would like to have it. 
They said they would, but had no means of getting it. 

"He told them to hide their heads. He then took a 
sling, which he always carried, and a stone out of his 
mouth, and hit the seal on the head, and killed it. 

' ' The women were pleased, and from that time Tezoda 
began to be famous. 

' ' He asked them if they did not want a big tree for wood, 
but they said that they could not cut it down with their 
stone-adzes. So he told them to hide their heads again, 
and he struck the tree with a stone from his sling. It fell, 
breaking into pieces just the right length, and he piled 
the whole tree into the canoe, so that, when they got 
back, all the people turned out to see a canoe carry so 
big a load. And they filled up the house with wood so 
full of pitch that it burned like grease. 

' ' So Hallach was ashamed of himself. Also his wife was 
sorry that she had i)referred him to Tezoda, and the chief 
felt very badly because he had such a worthless son-in-law. 

"Now the parents of the lame girl were anxious to 
secure Tezoda for a son-in-law, and, as he was willing, 
the wedding took place, aft(n- which a great feast was to 
be given to the neighbouring tribes. 



THE SON OF THE HEAVENLY CHIEF 115 

''Tezoda was sent out seal-htiuting, and came back 
with a canoe loaded down. 

' ' On the morning of the feast, he took his bride to a 
lonesome lake in the mountains, and both had a bath. 
They came out of the water looking very differently from 
what they did when they went in to swim. 

" The bride's lameness and homeliness were gone, and 
she was now a beauty. The groom was also much hand- 
somer than ever. 

" When they entered, and took their places at the feast, 
they were the wonder and envy of all, and the wife of Hal- 
lach felt more sorry than ever that she had not accepted 
Tezoda. 

" This was in the first part of the month of March, and, 
shortly after, the whole village went to Nass Eiver to get 
the oolakau fish. 

" On the way up, there is a high, rocky point. Tezoda, 
who wanted still further to ' shame ' Hallach and his wife, 
asked Hallach to sling a stone at the rock. Hallach did 
so, but the stone fell short in the water. Then Tezoda 
took his sling, and threw a stone, which struck the moun- 
tain, boring a hole through it, which can be seen even to 
this day. 

''Still further on the way, they saw a mountain with 
copper on the top. Hallach again tried to hit it, but his 
stone fell back into the canoe, and struck his mother-in- 
law, who fell into the water, where she turned into a 
salmon and disappeared. 

" This was too much for Hallach, who felt so ashamed 
that he jumped overboard and was lost. 

"Then Tezoda, with his sling, threw a stone, which 
struck the copper, and knocked it down so that it dropped 
and broke into twelve ' coppers.' These he carried north. 
He was the first one who brought these costly media of 
exchange among the Northland tribes." 



XV 

THRAIMSHUM, THE TSIMSHEAN DEVIL 

THE legendary lore of all primitive people is more 
or less busy with the devil, or, at least, with an 
evil spirit of some sort. 

The Tsimsheau folk-lore is no exception in this partic- 
ular. In fact, their legends are so much occupied with 
Thraimshum, their devil, that one of them told Mr. 
Duncan that it would take him a whole week, should he 
tell him all the Tsimsheau legends about Thraimshum. 

But the Tsimsheans seem to have had a clearer concep- 
tion of him, and his true character, than most heathen na- 
tions have. Thus it will be seen from the following, that 
their devil, like the Biblical one, fell, or was thrown, 
down from heaven. Their common nickname for him is 
the ''father of liars." He is voracious, and a glutton, 
never gets enough to eat, and practically scours the earth, 
''seeking what he can devour." 

While he has the power to hop from mountain peak to 
mountain peak, and to hurl a mountainside down into a 
ravine, and to change his appearance and assume gigantic 
proportions, he is utterly unable to do anything useful for 
himself. He cannot catch a fish for himself when he is 
hungry — can only cheat a man out of one, by some one of 
his many frauds, tricks and deceits. 

His history, according to the Tsimsheans, begins as 
follows : 

' ' A chief's son had a slave of his own age. He grew up 
to be an expert archer. One day he shot a raven, skinned 
it, put on the skin, and found that he could fly. 

116 



THRAIMSHUM, THE TSIMSHEAN DEVIL 117 

" The slave boy wanted to fly also, so lie shot another 
raven, and taught the slave to fly. 

"They flew up into heaven, where the Great Chief gave 
them each a wife, and each of them had a baby boy. 

"After a while, the Great Chief wished them to send 
their boys down to earth to help the people. So their 
fathers dropped them down. One fell on land, and the 
other into the sea. The latter was the devil. 

" When he fell into the water, a salmon swallowed him. 
This happened not far from a village, where lived a chief, 
whose wife had no children. They both wanted children, 
but she did not get any. One of her slave women was 
out fishing with a net, and caught a big salmon. When 
she took it ashore to clean it, she found the boy in its 
belly. Then she put him under the bed of the chief's 
wife. When she awoke, during the night, she heard the 
boy cry, looked under the bed, found him, and took him 
in her arms. 

" Then the chief adopted him as his own son." 



XVI 

BEHIND THE WALLS 

AT the request of Governor Douglas, Mr. Dun- 
can, from the time when he first arrived at the 
Fort, read the service of the EpiscojDal Church 
for the garrison every Sunday forenoon. 

The inmates seemed to appreciate this service very 
much, also the schooling which he gave these grown up 
men, many of whom could neither read nor write. 

One of them, who learned the three "E's" from Mr. 
Duncan, afterwards became clerk in his store, and his 
bookkeeper at old Metlakahtla. 

It was Sunday morning, some four or five weeks after 
his arrival. As Mr. Duncan returned from his break- 
fast, he saw four or five of the men in their working 
clothes, and with axes on their shoulders. He at once 
went to the second officer, asked him what that meant, 
and was informed that the captain had given them orders 
to go out into the forest and chop wood. 

Duncan at once went to his room, and wrote a letter to 
the captain, stating what he had heard and seen as to his 
orders. 

''Now," he continued, ''I have only this to say ; that 
if this be so, I cannot hold any services in the Fort to-day. 
I am no hypocrite, and will not take part in any hypo- 
critical service wherein I read : ' From the contempt of 
Thy word, and holy commandments,' and you answer, 
'Good Lord, deliver us,' AAiien you and I both know that 

118 



BEHIND THE WALLS 119 

you have just broken one of God's commandments. 
Therefore, if you want any service, you will have to read 
it yourself, as I peremptorily decline so to do. ' ' 

In ten minutes the captain was at his quarters, angry 
as he could be. That was evident. Every one at the 
Fort knew what it meant, when the caj)tain appeared 
with his cap, turned around with the vizor in the neck. 

" I have received your letter, sir. I thought, when you 
came, that in a short time you would try to run the Fort, 
and I see I was right." 

"Not at all, sir. I try to run nothing. I issue no or- 
ders, only to myself. I must have that right. I don't 
prevent your having a service. I simply say : I will not 
take any part in it, knowing that God's law as to the Sab- 
bath is being openly broken. I am not the chaplain of 
your Fort, and you cannot order me, sir." 

"Well, sir, I shall certainly report this assumption of 
authority to the Company." 

"All right, do so. I will also make my report, and I 
have no fear of the result." 

The captain, angry as he could be, ran out, slammed 
the door, and shouted to the men : 

"You men need not go to work. It seems some one 
else is going to run things in the Fort after this." 

The men, of course, were more than pleased to quit 
work, and all came to the service. 

"This one thiug I do." 

As soon as Mr. Duncan had arrived at the state where 
he could, to some extent, make himself understood to 
Clah, he made it a point to go with him around to the 
houses of the Indians. 

His first specific object was to take a census of the peo- 
ple. This occupation gave him a chance to meet them in 
a friendly way, and I have no doubt that his face, which 
even then must have beamed like a benediction, spoke to 



120 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

them volumes of the white missionary's kindness and 
love for them. 

Whenever he learned of any being sick, he welcomed 
the opportunity to visit them, and to try to help them 
out, by some simx)le advice, or, once in a while, with 
some medicine from his medicine chest, for he had dab- 
bled a little in medicine also, thinking it might be of use 
to him in his missionary work. And many a heart was 
won by the young missionary, even before he could make 
himself understood at all in their language, through the 
kindness and symj)athy he showed the sick, and by his 
being able to relieve their suffering by the means at hand. 

It was a puzzle to the Indians to know what a white 
man, who was not a trader, or a whiskey-seller, or a de- 
baucher of their women, really came among them for. 
Many a time must they have put this question to each 
other. And frequently, I am told, did they inquire of 
Clah when the white man would be able to speak to 
them. 

One day, when Mr. Duncan had been at the Fort three 
or four months, he was surprised to see a fine-looking old 
Indian chief enter his room. The chiefs name was " Ne- 
yashtodoh." He was one of the chiefs of the Kitlahns, 
and while not the head chief, was very much respected 
by all the Indians in the camp. 

The fact that he had three full grown sons living with 
him, would alone make him very much respected. 

' '■ I have heard that you have come here with the let- 
ter of God. Is that so % Have you the letter of God with 
you?" asked the chief. 

*'I have," said Mr. Duncan. 

"Would you mind showing it to me? " 

* ' Certainly. ' ' And Mr. Duncan went into his bedroom, 
and returned with a large Bible, which he placed on the 
table. 



BEHIND THE WALLS 121 

" This is God's Book." 

The Indian reverently, almost caressingly, laid his hand 
on the Bible. 

" Is God's letter for the Tsimsheans ^ " 

"Certainly. God sent this Book to your people, as 
well as to mine." 

" Does that Book give God's ' heart ' to us? " 

''It does." 

"And are you going to tell the Indians that ? " ~" 

"I am." 

"Ahm! Ahm ! Shimauget." (It is good — It is good, 
chief.) 

His coming, under the circumstances, showed how anx- 
iously some of them were looking for the Gospel message. 
They could hardly wait until he was ready to bring it 
them. 



XVII 

THE FIRST MESSAGE 

FINALLY, the great day came, when Mr. Duncan, 
after eight months' assiduous study, had attained 
such knowledge of their language that he had 
been able to write out in Tsimshean the first message of 
the Christ to the savage heart. 

The Indians had but lately returned from their oolakan 
fishing-trip to the Nass Eiver, when he was ready, for the 
first time, to address them in their own language. 

On Saturday morning, he sent word to the chiefs of the 
nine different tribes that he would like to address their 
people in their respective houses the next day, and asked 
if they would permit him to do so. 

The answer was favourable in every instance, and it 
must have given him much encouragement to notice 
that not a canoe started out that Sunday morning from 
the settlement. Every Indian man, woman, and child 
was anxious to hear what the white chief had come to tell 
them. 

It was ten o'clock Sunday forenoon, the 13th day of 
June, A.D. 1858, when he started from the Fort, with his 
sermon in his pocket, and, accompanied by Clah, his 
language teacher. 

The first house which he entered was that of Neyahsh- 
nawah, the head chief of the Kitlootsah tribe, where he 
found an audience of about one hundred gathered to hear 
him. 

122 




DRAWING A SEINE OE EISH AT TAiNE, NEAR 
METLAKAHTLA 




REMNANTS OF THE HOUSE OF NEYAHSHNWAH 
NOW STANDING AT PORT SIMPSON 



THE FIRST MESSAGE 123 

It seems almost a dispensation of Providence that of all 
the Indian houses, at that time located near Fort Simpson, 
the only one of which any vestige now remains is that 
very house, in which he, by God's grace, was first al- 
lowed to preach the Gospel to the Tsimsheaus. 

The framework of this house, as shown in the illustra- 
tion on a near-by page, stands to-day at Fort Simpson, 
though its occupants and their descendants long since are 
gone. 

By actual measurement of the beams and posts now 
standing, it ai)pears that this house was fifty-five feet by 
sixty-five feet, with a height from the ground to the lower 
edge of the cross-beams of a little over fifteen feet. The 
beams and posts are logs of nearly three feet in di- 
ameter. 

This was the first Indian assembly Mr. Duncan ever 
faced. No wonder that he quailed before the undertak- 
ing. It required a stout heart for any one, with only his 
limited knowledge of a strange and difficult language, to 
dare lay before this waiting throng the precious Gospel 
message. One word imi)roperly used might produce an 
entirely wrong impression — one mispronounced, bring 
ridicule on the messenger and the message. But Mr. 
Duncan had a stout heart, and then he had, in addition 
thereto, the wonderful support of an Almighty Father, 
who did not allow him to yield to the temptation to read 
his sermon, sentence by sentence, to Clah, and have him 
repeat it to the people. 

When he, at the last moment, fearing the effect of his 
faulty pronunciation, suggested this course to Clah, the 
blanching of the latter' s cheeks at once convinced him 
that things would be liable to go worse then, and, with a 
silent prayer to God for help, he started in by asking the 
people to close the door. 

This brought an awe of stillness over the audience, 



124 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

which was heightened by Mr. Duncan's kneeling down 
for a few moments of silent prayer. 

He then gave them the first address they ever heard 
from a white man in their own language. 

Fortunately, I am able to give, in English, a synopsis 
of this historical address, the original of which, in Tsim- 
shean, is still kept in Mr. Duncan's safe at Metlakahtla. 

He first introduced himself as a missionary from Eng- 
land, who had come from afar over the great seas with the 
specific object of giving to them the message of God from 
His Book, which, if they would learn and obey it, would 
bless them in this life, and prepare them for the life to 
come. He then reminded them that we do not live here 
always, that the term of our life here is uncertain ; but, 
though our bodies die, our souls do not, and proceeded : 

"God's Book teaches us how we should live in this 
world, and so be prepared for a future life in heaven 
with God. 

"It also teaches us about God — that He is holy, that 
He hates every evil way — that all men and women are sin- 
ners, and that our hearts are full of evil. 

" God made us to love Him, and follow His ways ; but 
the people have forsaken Him, and followed their own 
ways, which are evil in His sight. 

"God's Book tells us that God sees all we do, knows all 
that is in our hearts, and that, when we die, every one 
of us must stand before Him, to answer for our conduct 
on earth. 

" We cannot hide anything from God, nor can we make 
ourselves good. 

' ' How then can we be saved from the punishment due 
to oiu' sius, and become good ? 

" The answer to these great questions is given us in God's 
Book, and this is the Gospel, or good news, which God 
has sent you. 



THE FIRST MESSAGE 125 

" I now urge you to listen to this Gospel, wMch is : That 
God so loved and pitied mankind, that He sent His only 
Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to save us, 

' ' Jesus Christ suffered and died for our sins. 

" He is now in heaven to hear and answer our prayers. 

** He bids us put away our sinful ways, and look to 
Him to be saved. 

*' If we obey. He will pardon our sins, make us holy, and 
take us to live with Him in heaven when we die. 

" I exhort you not to reject God's message of love. Ee- 
flect on how much God has done to save us. Put away 
your evil ways, and learn God's ways. 

*' One thing I ask you to do, from this day forth, which 
you can do, and which will be pleasing to God. Eefrain 
from all kind of work on Sunday, which is the Lord's 
Day, and meet together on that day to learn God's will, 
and pray to Him. 

" I have a great deal more to tell you from God's Book. 
He has heard what I have told you to-day. Believe that 
God is longing to bless you, and to save you." 

The Indians were all remarkably attentive. When, at 
the conclusion, he asked them to kneel down, they at once 
complied. And while he offered up a prayer in English, 
they preserved great silence. 

He then bade them good-bye, and went to the house of 
the head chief of the Tsimsheans, Legale, where every- 
thing was prepared, a sail spread for Mr. Duncan to 
stand upon, and a mat placed on a box for him to sit 
upon. About one hundred and fifty people had as- 
sembled, who were, by the chief, admonished to behave 
themselves, and listen respectfully to what he had to say. 

A few people from the Fort being present, Mr. Duncan 
first spoke shortly in English, and thereupon repeated 
his address in Tsimshean. 

They all knelt in prayer, and were very attentive, as at 



126 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

the other place. Clah, upon inquiry, assured Mr. Duncan 
that, from their looks, he knew that they understood him, 
and felt it to be " good." 

After this, he went to the other seven chiefs' houses in 
succession, and in each repeated his address to a congre- 
gation of all the way from fifty to two hundred souls. 

In some of the places, where he had an idea that the 
people did not understand, or pay the attention he de- 
sired, he repeated his address. At one house he even re- 
peated it twice. 

When four o'clock came, he had, without getting any 
rest or luncheon, preached in nine different houses, to be- 
tween eight and nine hundred Indians. 

That it was a great beginning of a great good to these 
people, the following pages will show. 

That he had made a good impression on the people 
was evident from the fact that the head chief. Legale, of- 
fered him the use of his house for a school, which he in- 
formed them he intended to open at once, for the children 
in the forenoon, and for the adults in the afternoon. 

The roll-call showed twenty-six children present on the 
first day, and the attendance increased right along. Still 
more satisfactory to the teacher was it to notice the atten- 
tion and interest the scholars seemed to give to their 
work from the beginning. 

The attendance in the afternoon, some fifteen only, was 
not so satisfactory. It evidently took some courage for 
the grown people to go to school. 

The spirit, which Mr. Duncan had recognized, by not 
asking the people to hear his message, except in their 
own chief's house, soon made itself felt, also with reference 
to the school. One chief said to Mr. Duncan : 

" You Avill have all the people to teach as soon as your 
own house is built. ' ' 

This set him to thinking, and as Legale, when the sal- 



THE FIRST MESSAGE 127 

mon season came, was going away, he, after a while, con- 
cluded he had better close his school till he could get a 
school building erected. 

On July 11th, Mr. Duncau had finished and prepared 
a second address in Tsimshean, and proceeded to deliver 
it in the same way as on the first occasion. 

Of all the people present, there was only one, the Chief 
Quthray, the head of the cannibal club, who refused to 
kneel, when he asked them to do so. The angry scowl 
and the ugly muttering of this chief showed that the 
medicine-men recognized in the new teaching the death 
knell to their nefarious practices and disgusting deviltry. 
They undoubtedly commenced to feel already that a new 
light was coming over their people, which would open 
their eyes to the falsehood and deceit that so long had 
been practiced upon them, and from which these same 
medicine-men had so long managed to make an easy liv- 
ing. 

During the summer months a goodly portion of the In- 
dians were away, but enough remained to give Mr. Dun- 
can a lift with his school building. 

Several had undertaken to cut the logs and raft them 
over to the beach, and now the logs were to be brought 
up the hill, to the place where the school was to be lo- 
cated, about the site where the Methodist Church now 
stands. But this was not to be. Only a few logs had 
been brought to the location, when an Indian, assisting 
in the work, fainted and died, undoubtedly from some 
heart trouble. 

Any one knowing the Indian superstition can appreciate 
the effect of this. Naturally, any confidence with which 
Mr. Duncan had inspired them would be shaken, and 
they would be afraid to help any further in the work. 

With a wisdom which seems to be of God, and which 
never, all through his life, has forsaken him, he immedi- 



128 • THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

ately stopped the work, and changed the site to a place 
whence it would not require such exertion to convey the 
logs ; but where, on the other hand, he put himself right 
in the path of the enemies of his work, as he later on 
found out. 

He said nothing more about building, until September 
16th. The next day he wrote in his diary : 

*' Yesterday J spoke to a few on the subject, and all seemed 
heartily glad. One old chief said to me : ' Cease being angry 
now,' thinking, I suppose, my delay was occasioned by anger. 
He assured me he would send his men to help. This morning 
I went to the raft at 6 a. m. But only one old man was there. 
In a little time came two or three. Then a few more. Then 
two chiefs. By about half-past six we mustered seven or eight 
workers on the raft, though several more came and sat at their 
doors, Indian-like, as though they wished only to look on. 

"This seemed greatly in contrast with their expressions to 
me yesterday, but such is the Indian. I knew it was of no use 
to push, so I patiently waited. 

"About seven o'clock, one of the Indians on the raft sprang 
to his feet, gave the word for starting, which is a peculiar kind 
of a whoop, and he, with the few so inadequate to do the 
work, determined to begin. At this, I proceeded up the beach 
to the building site; but what was my surprise, when, on re- 
turning, I met upwards of forty Indians carrying logs. 

" They all seemed to have moved in an instant, and sprung to 
the work with one heart. The enthusiasm they manifested was 
truly gladdening, and almost alarming. Among the number 
were several old men, who were doing more with their spirited 
looks and words than with their muscles. The whole camp 
seemed now excited. Encouraging words and pleasant looks 
greeted me on every side. Every one seemed in earnest, and 
the heavy blocks and beams began to move up the hill with 
amazing rapidity. When the Fort bell rang for breakfast, they 
proposed to keep on. One old man said he would not eat till 
the work was done. However, I did not think it good to 
sanction this enthusiasm so far, but sent them off to their 
homes. 

"By three o'clock all was over, for which I was very glad, 
for the constant whooping, groaning and bawling of the In- 



THE FIRST MESSAGE 129 

dians, together with the difficuhy of the work, from the great 
weight of the pieces and the bad road, kept me in constant 
fear." 

"Within a few days the framework was iu position, and 
the work of finishing the school building and providing 
the schoolroom with the necessary desks and benches, 
now proceeded as fast as could be expected. 

Mr. Duncan had intended to buy bark for the roof, but 
the Indians, saying that the white chief's teaching house 
ought to have a roof of boards, insisted upon donating, 
with a great deal of ceremony and show of good feeling, 
the boards, both for the floor and the roofing. 

Many, who could not otherwise have contributed, 
brought boards from their own houses, and even planks, 
which were part of their beds. 

On November 17th, when the school was first opened, 
his former scholars all rushed eagerly to the new school, 
whither they were called by blows on a triangle of steel, 
used for a bell. 

The attendance proved to be one hundred and forty 
children and fifty adults — many more than he had ever 
expected, or hoped to see there. 



XVIII 

THE DEVIL ABROAD 

THESE fall montlis were like the calm before 
the storms, which always rage during the mid- 
winter months in Alaskan waters. With the 
month of December commenced the medicine work and 
the club work, with all its abominable and disgusting 
ceremonies. 

On the first of December, the head chief came to the 
captain of the Fort, and told him that his young daugh- 
ter ("the big fin") had gone to the moon for her educa- 
tion, and would be back in a month, and asked him to 
persuade Mr. Duncan to suspend his school during that 
month, as it would interfere with their work, and he did 
not like to have the children pass by the house, going to 
and from school, as it broke the spell of their mysteries. 
If he would do this, they would all come to school after- 
wards. But, if he did not, the medicine-men might shoot 
the children as they were on their way to school. 

Now this going to the moon was, of course, only a 
put-up game. They all know better. They simply hide 
the child away somewhere in the forest for a month. 
When she has disappeared, they go around with a mys- 
terious air, and sing weird songs. A kind of heathenish 
hysterics comes over the whole camp. They pretend to 
know just when she is coming back. The whole tribe is 
gathered on the beach looking for her, when she suddenly 
appears, coming around the point on a raft, stark naked. 
They now rush out into the water, to take her off the 

130 



THE DEVIL ABROAD 131 

little raft. She makes all kinds of funny gestures, as if 
she wanted to get away, and go up into the air again. 

They then tie her with a medicine- man's rope, and 
butcher a dog. She pretends to eat the raw dog-meat, 
smears the blood around her mouth, and on her breast 
and arms, runs, with her arms stretched out, and moving 
them up and down, as if she tried to fly, around to all 
the houses in the village, followed by the crowd. At 
some house she gets up on the roof, with the people after 
her, holding her back from going to the moon again. 

When the captain laid the request of Legale before 
Mr. Duncan, and asked him to give in to them in this 
matter, his answer was : 

'' Not for a month, nor even for a day will I stop. 
Satan has reigned long enough here. It is high time his 
rule should be disturbed." 

The second officer of the Fort should not have said what 
he did : 

*' I think you are making a great mistake, sir, in not 
giving in to them. You do not know what you are doing. 
Tou ought to respect their superstitions. It is likely that 
bloodshed will come from this." 

'^ Well, sir," said Duncan, '^I thank you for your ad- 
vice, which, by the way, I did not ask you to give. 1 
may not know what I am doing. But I think you do 
not know what you are talking about. If blood will be 
shed, it certainly will not be yours anyhow. I suppose 
you mean mine. But, as to my own blood, I will be re- 
sponsible for that, sir. One thing I know — whether blood 
will be shed or not, and I don't believe it will be, I never 
could afford to make a compromise with the devil, and I 
never will." 

That is Mr. Duncan, through and through. It was his 
policy in the beginning. It has been his policy all through 
his life. It is his policy to-day. No one can move him 



132 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

an inch, when lie thinks he is right, and has laid out his 
course to follow. 

When Legale that night came for his answer, and found 
what it was, he begged the captain to ask Mr. Duncan to 
stop for a fortnight anyway. But, by this time, the cap- 
tain knew better than to run his head up against a stone 
wall, and told the chief it would be of no use to speak to 
Mr. Duncan about it again. 

The day the girl was coming back, the chief's wife 
hailed Mr. Duncan as he was going into the schoolroom. 
She said the chiefs were all at her house, and had sent her 
to ask him if he could not dispense with the school for 
just one day. 

" No, not for an hour." 

" The bell does so disturb them. Could you be so kind 
as not to ring the bell to-day ? " 

"No, I cannot do that. If I did not ring the bell, the 
scholars would think there would be no school, and would 
not come." 

" Well, you could ring it softly, not so hard ? " 

"No, if I ring it at all, I will have to ring it as usual, 
so they can hear it." 

She cried, and went away seemingly much dejected at 
the failure of her mission. 

Mr. Duncan struck the steel used for a school bell, and 
says he is inclined to think that, if anything, the bell was 
clanging a little more lively that day than usual. And 
no one who knows Mr. Duncan doubts that for a moment. 

Only about eighty scholars came to school that day. 
Tlie rest undoubtedly knew what was coming, and pru- 
dently stayed away. 

Nothing happened in the morning, but in the afternoon, 
just as school was to commence, Duncan, on looking out 
of the door (there were no windows in this school build- 
ing), noticed several Indians coming in single file, Legale 



THE DEVIL ABROAD 133 

first. They all liad their war-paint on. Some wore 
masks. , 

When Legale came into the room, the children all 
scampered , out of the door. The other Indians, seven in 
number, followed Legale in. Mr. Duncan, who perhaps 
guessed what was coming, folded his arms, and stood im- 
movable at his place. 

Legale first commenced to scold him because he had 
not "obeyed" him. Mr. Duncan simply answered that 
he had to obey God more than man, and that God looked 
with anger and disgust on their heathen deviltry. 

At this time, some of the other Indians evidently 
taunted Legale, who was considerably under the influence 
of liquor, for he now started over, closer to Mr. Duncan, 
with an ugly looking knife in his hand, assuring him in 
the meanwhile that he was a bad man, that he had killed 
men before, and that he now had made up his mind to 
"punish" him. He was brandishing his knife, as his 
companion, Cushwat, encouraged him by crying : 

"Kill him. Cut his head off. Give it to me, and I 
will kick it on the beach ! ' ' 

Mr. Duncan, who thought his last moment had come, 
threw a glance upward, and then looked his intended 
murderer, who towered above the little Englishman, 
firmly in the eye, as he said : 

"Yes, you are a bad man. I know it. You would 
kill me, who have done you no harm. I, who have come 
here only for your good." 

He noticed that while he was speaking. Legale' s eyes 
were tiu-niug to the left of him ; that he seemed to waver 
in his evident purpose. And he was more than surprised 
when he heard Legale commence to speak abusively to 
Clah. 

On turning to the left, he saw Clah, who had come in 
without the knowledge of Mr. Duncan, standing with his 



134 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

right hand under his blanket, a little behind him. He then 
understood that Legale, as he came up to kill him, had 
observed Clah's coming in, and that he, from the position, 
well knew that Clah had a loaded pistol under his blanket, 
and would shoot him dead the moment he did any harm 
to Mr. Duncan. 

Growling and cursing, Legale' s followers left. When 
he saw that, he also retired. 

Well might Mr. Duncan write in his diary that night : 

" I have heartily to thank that all-seeing Father, who 
has covered me and supported me to-day." 

After Legale had gone, Mr. Duncan went out to ring 
the bell. He was surprised to find the children all hud- 
dled together under the building. (The house was built 
on posts.) He told them to come in, which they did. 
And with them came also an old woman belonging to 
Legale' s tribe. 

Duncan was a little nervous after the attack, perhaps, 
but nevertheless he distributed the books, and was about 
to commence the instruction, when there was a heavy 
thump against the door, which he had just closed. 

He understood perfectly well that this indicated an un- 
friendly action, and expected his last moment had come, 
as he felt sure that Legale had probably been taunted with 
having come and gone without doing what he had said 
he would do. But he, nevertheless, went to open the door. 

Legale stood outside. 

" You said I was a bad man. I wanted to show you I 
was not. Look at my * teapots.' " 

The Tsimsheans were then, as all the coast Indians are 
now, very anxious to obtain letters or certificates from 
white men, especially officials, as to their good character. 
These certificates, which they call " teapots," they value 
very much, and are very prone to show them to visiting 
Whites, with whom they come in contact. 



THE DEVIL ABROAD 135 

As they generally are unable to read writing, some- 
times scurvy tricks are played upon them by persons 
taking advantage of their ignorance. 

I saw once such a " teapot" handed me in good faith 
by an old, ignorant Indian, which read as follows : 

^' This Indian is an infernal thief. He will steal a red 
hot stove. Look out for him." 

The poor old Indian did not look as if he could steal a 
potato. 

But Legale' s ''teapots" were undoubtedly bona fide, 
obtained from the captain of the Fort, and others. They 
were carefully placed between two pieces of board, which 
were whittled down to the thickness of thick, heavy paper. 

He now handed this package to Mr. Duncan. 

''No," he said, "I don't care to read your 'teapots.' 
I know you better than the men who gave them. But 
that does not make any difference. I have no ill-feeling 
against you. I have come here to make you good. Come 
in here, and sit down, and I will help you to be better." 

Saying this, he took him by the arm, as if to lead him 
in. This was too much for the chief. With an indig- 
nant grunt, he disappeared. 

His feeling continued for some time to be of such a 
hostile nature, that in order not to expose the scholars' 
lives to dangerous attacks as they passed his house, Mr. 
Duncan deemed it best to close the school in the school- 
house, and accept the offer of another chief to use his 
house for a school, temporarily. Over one hundred 
scholars were now in regular attendance. 

The murderous attack of Legale took place five days 
before Christmas. 

On Christmas Day, the scholars, at Mr. Duncan's re- 
quest, brought their friends and parents with them to 
school. Some two hundred gathered. Now, for the first 
time, did Mr. Duncan attempt to speak to the people, with- 



136 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

out having reduced his ideas to writing. The attempt, 
much to his surprise, proved to be a complete success. 

He explained to the Indians, to whom Sunday was 
''dress-day," and Christmas Day "the great dress-day," 
why the white people celebrated this day as one of " great 
joy to all people." That God's Sou was born on that 
day. He spoke again of the love of God, and His hatred 
of sin, and especially called their attention to the sin 
of drunkenness amongst men, and profligacy amongst 
women, of which they were guilty. As he spoke, he 
could see that his words went home to the consciences of 
many. 

After his sermon, he questioned the children on some 
Bible truths, which they had learned at school, and then 
they sang two hymns, which he had translated into their 
tongue, and which the children had practiced in school, 
he accompanying the singing on his concertina. 

Thereafter the same kind of services were held in the 
schoolroom every Sunday. Hymns were sung, a short 
address given, a brief catechization of the people on 
simple truths, and then a closing song and prayer. 

And this less than seven months after the Indians had, 
for the first time in their lives, heard the Gospel message. 



XIX 

FIRST FRUITS 

IN February, 1859, Mr. Diincau thought it safe to 
move the school back to the house he had built for 
it, and, dividing the pupils into different classes, he 
found himself able to make better progress than before in 
instructing them. Every session of the school was opened 
with prayer and a short address on a passage or narrative 
from the Bible. 

Then he would make the whole school learn a text in 
English, which he explained and paraphrased, and which 
they repeated again and again until it was firmly fixed 
in their minds. 

Singing was a very popular part of the school work. 
Simple hymns were translated into their language, and 
old and young were very much interested in learning 
them. 

Gradually, the little crowd who gathered around the 
Word every Sunday increased, and those who had come 
from the beginning seemed to become more and more 
interested. 

The influence of the Gospel showed itself in many of 
them. It was especially observable in those who at- 
tended the school. Week by week, there was a fewer 
number who came to school painted in the heathen way, 
or with the abominable rings or ornaments in their noses 
or lips. 

Soon it was also clearly perceivable that the drunken 
brawls in the camp were on the decrease. 

137 



138 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Some of the chiefs had already let it be known that 
they would abandon their medicine work. And one 
thing was certain, that the heathenish rites were not 
carried on with the same spirit and dash as heretofore. 
One could notice that a feeling of shame had taken pos- 
session of the common people when taking part in the 
ceremonies, instead of the braggadocio which theretofore 
was one of the concomitants of the medicine and club 
work. 

No better proof that the teaching of the Gospel was 
taking effect, and that the Word reached the hearts and 
consciences of the people, can be found than the conduct 
of a bad man, who was present at a service, and who 
finally went away muttering, and later was heard to 
"talk badly " against Mr. Duncan. 

His trouble was that he was firmly convinced that Mr. 
Duncan was speaking about Mm, and had been telling the 
l^eople his bad ways, and thus "shamed" him. 

At a meeting held by several chiefs, in Legale' s house, 
in March, just before the departure of the main body of 
the people for the oolakan fishing at Nass Eiver, it was 
resolved to send word from them to Mr. Duncan, that 
they hoped he would keep on to "speak strong" against 
the bad ways of their people, and they would also sup- 
port him with "strong speeches." 

But more than mere talk was it, when the head chief, 
Legale himself, on the 6th of April, came to the school, 
this time not to kill the teacher, but in order to sit at his 
feet and learn about "the good ways." 

This example was soon followed by many. And, during 
the year, four or five other chiefs diligently attended 
school. 

In August, the following event took place : 

One Cushwaht had been bitten by a dog belonging in 
the Fort. According to the Indian custom, he was to 



FIRST FRUITS 139 

take out his revenge on one of the Whites, and as Mr. 
Duncan was the only one he could conveniently get at, 
he went in his rage to the schoolhouse to kill him. 

As he found the door locked, he smashed it, cut out the 
lock, and destroyed some books and other property. It 
was really the time for Mr. Duncan to be at school, but, 
fortunately for him, he had been called to see an old In- 
dian woman, who was suffering from peritonitis. He 
told her that he had to go to the Fort to consult his books, 
and to mix some medicine for her. 

As he stood in his room rolling some pills, which he 
had prepared, in magnesia, two Indians came rushing in. 
They were very much excited, brought with them the 
piece which had been cut out of the door, and begged of 
him not to go outside the Fort, as Cushwaht had sworn 
that he would kill him. 

One of them, an old man, one of the first to come out 
to his services, begged him, with tears in his eyes, not to 
show himself outside the Fort that day. 

But Mr. Duncan was immovable. He had promised 
the old woman to come and see her again. She would ex- 
pect him. He felt that it was his duty to keep his prom- 
ise ; that God would protect him in the discharge of his 
duty. And he went on his way. 

As he left the Fort, the Indians shouted after him : 

" If Cushwaht kills you, we will kill him." 

He had to pass near Cushwaht' s house, in going to see 
the old woman. He went by with his head erect, whis- 
tling in a careless manner. He imagined he saw some one 
moving inside the door, but nothing happened. 

While he was in his patient's house, a woman came in. 
It was Cushwaht' s wife. He noticed that she crossed the 
floor, and observed him very closely. He looked up, cast 
a careless glance in her direction, and went on with his 
work. Later on, he found that she had been sent to see 



140 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

whether he appeared scared or flustered. If he had so 
appeared, the ludiau would have killed him, without 
doubt. That was their way. If he was not afraid, then 
the Indian did not dare to attack him, as Duncan's 
"spirit " would then have been on top. 

On coming out, the idea occurred to him to go directly 
past the house, as there were some other sick peojple 
farther away, whom he might visit now, when there was 
to be no school in the afternoon. But then it came to 
him : 

" No, you have no duty to go there. God will protect 
you in the discharge of your duty, but not when you 
recklessly run into danger." 

So he turned, and went back to the Fort. Nothing 
happened. He paid no attention to what Cushwaht had 
done. Only put on a new lock, and went about his usual 
business. 

And now was apparent the change which had come 
over the hearts of the Indians during the last half-year. 
He had to use his strongest powers of i)ersuasion to keep 
them from taking measures of revenge against Cushwaht, 
for doing what he had against him, and for threatening 
his life. 

That all days of danger, however, were not yet over, is 
shown by the following incident : 

Mr. Duncan, who had noticed that the Indian children 
never played or laughed or even smiled, determined to 
get his school children to have some innocent amusement, 
as well as instruction. 

He, therefore, in November, after the potatoes had been 
dug from the garden at the Fort, secured the captain's 
permission to use a portion of this garden for a play- 
ground for his scholars, and erected on it a greased pole, 
with a cap on top, which was to belong to the boy who 
could first get hold of it. 



FIRST FRUITS 141 

They bad quite a time of it, some of the old people gath- 
ering to look at the contest, as well as quite a lot of chil- 
dren, too small to take part. 

As it \Yas cold, and the children were scantily dressed, 
he was afraid that the little ones, who were just looking 
on, were getting chilly ; so he i^roposed that they run 
after him, and, to the one who could catch him, he prom- 
ised to give a piece of soax3. The little children, who al- 
ready had become quite attached to the kind, loving 
schoolmaster, started to run. One of them stumbled and 
fell. Some of the others laughed at the clumsiness of the 
little tot, who was foolish enough to cry at the mishap. 

Mr. Duncan noticed a commotion over in the crowd of 
people ; but did not know till it was all over what was up. 

Loocoal, the father of the child, a medicine-man, who 
had no love for Mr. Duncan, then or afterwards, angry at 
his child having been "shamed," and using the Indian 
logic, that it would not have hapx3ened had not Mr. Dun- 
can asked them to run after him and catch him, had lifted 
his gun, pointed it at Mr. Duncan, and undoubtedly 
would have killed him then and there, had it not been 
for his own nephew, who grabbed hold of the muzzle of 
the gun, pushed it to the ground, and held it there, 
till others could disarm the outraged medicine-man. 
Loocoal was, some years later, killed by this very nephew. 

The following summer, Mr. Duncan, at the joint re- 
quest of Bishop Hills, of the Diocese of Columbia, and 
of Governor Douglas, spent a couple of months, while his 
Indians were away on their fishing trips, at Victoria, 
where it was thought he could be of great assistance in 
helping to organize a movement to control and Christian- 
ize the Indian camps near Victoria, where many of the 
up-coast Indians came for trading and worse purposes. 

He showed his ability as an organizer in this work. 
His plans were fully approved by the authorities, and 



142 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

could he himself have been permitted to carry them out, 
they would uuquestiouably have proven of great benefit. 
But the people afterwards chosen to carry them into exe- 
cution unfortunately did not have the requisite courage, 
and the work fell through, after Mr. Duncan had left for 
the Northland with the Eev. L. S. Tugwell, a missionary, 
who, upon Duncan's repeated requests u^Don the Society, 
to send him a married missionary, in order that the In- 
dians might be taught Christian home-life, had, with his 
young wife, been sent out from England, and arrived in 
Victoria in the month of August, 1860. 

Mr. Duncau, of course, started for Fort Simpson with 
his new assistants on the first steamer going north. 
On arriving at the Fort, he addressed Mrs. Tugwell : 
" Now, don't bother about the luggage, Mrs. Tugwell ! 
Your husband and I will look after that. But we have 
no bread in the house. "Will you kindly make us some 
biscuits ! You will find the flour over there." 

"Why, Mr. Duncan," was her answer, "I don't know 
how to make biscuits. I never made any biscuits in all 
my life." 

One can hardly blame Mr. Duncan, when he, of late, 
in speaking of this incident, said : 

"What do you think of that 1 The Church Missionary 
Society had sent more than five thousand miles, some 
one to hell) me to teach the Indians Christian home-life, 
and here I was, obliged to make bread for her myself, the 
very first day she was in my house." 

It is only fair, however, to say that Mrs. Tugwell, for 
the little more than a year that she and her husband 
spent at Fort Simpson, proved of much greater value 
than her first day's lack of usefulness would seem to give 
promise of. 

As the accommodations in the Fort now had become 
wholly inadequate, Mr. Duncan concluded to build a 



FIRST FRUITS 143 

dwelling house outside, where he placed in charge of Mrs. 
Tugwell some of the older schoolgirls, who were getting 
to an age when they required a Christian mother's care, 
and some one to look after them all the time, and this 
position Mrs. Tugwell, to the best of her ability, filled 
with great zeal and Christian earnestness. 

In the month of April, 1860, Mr. Duncan had under- 
taken a journey up the Nass Eiv^er in order to carry the 
Gospel tidings to the Tsimshean tribes there. But as he 
was not, at the time, able to get to the upper villages, 
and now had been authorized by the Governor to warn all 
the tribes in the Northwestern part of the province against 
bringing their young women to Victoria, he, after return- 
ing to Fort Simpson with the Tugwells, made another tour 
up Nass River, on which trip he visited all the different 
villages located up that great stream. 

On going away from the Fort on canoe trips, he always 
took with him, for paddlers, some young boys of his 
scholars. If he had one adult for counsel as to naviga- 
tion, which he deemed safest, he always made it a point 
to choose an old man, whom he could expect to be able to 
overpower, should he attack him for the purpose of rob- 
bery. That was the extent of confidence he yet had in the 
Indians. So much had been preached to him by the Fort 
people of their treachery. 

On this trip, he was happily surprised as to the char- 
acter of the old man he had taken along. He says him- 
self: 

" One night, when I was camping out, after a weary day, the 
supper and the little instruction being over, my crew of In- 
dians, excepting one old man, quickly spread their mats near 
the fire, and lay down to sleep, in pairs, each sharing his fel- 
low's blanket. 

*' The one old man sat near the fire, smoking his pipe. I 
crept into my little tent, but, after some time, put my head 



144 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

outside, to see that all was right. The old man was just mak- 
ing his bed (a thin bark mat on the ground, a little box of 
grease, and a few dry salmon for his pillow — a shirt on, and a 
blanket around him — another bark mat over all, his head in- 
cluded). When everything was adjusted, he put his pipe 
down, and offered up, in his own tongue, this simple little 
prayer : 

" ' Be merciful to me, Jesus.' Then he drew up his feet, and 
was soon lost to view." 



Methinks Mr. Duncan had no fear of any attempt at 
robbery on tlie part of this old man after that day. 

The reception which he met with at one of the upper 
villages, on his second trij) up Nass Eiver, is so unique, 
that it must be told, as I heard him tell it one day, in the 
church at Metlakahtla, to a party of tourists. But I de- 
sire to preface the narrative with the remark that not only 
had the news of Mr. Duncan's preaching the Gospel at 
the lower villages the foregoing Spring reached these 
tribes, but, more than that, the tale of the wonderful in- 
fluence which he had already exercised over so many of 
the Fort Simpson Indians had undoubtedly penetrated 
into the Interior, and filled these savage hearts with awe 
and wonderment. 

On the eighth day of September, Mr. Duncan started 
from the uppermost of the lower villages on ]^ass Eiver 
on his journey up-stream. The current in this river is so 
rapid that it is almost impossible to make much headway 
unless a man acquainted with the eddies of the river is at 
the helm. 

Mr. Duncan, therefore, with thanks accepted the gen- 
erous offer of Kintsadah, the chief, to pilot him on his 
trip. 

Soon after he had arrived at Agweelakkah's village, 
and liad encamped on the river bank, messengers from 
the chief came to tell him that the chief's house was not 



FIRST FRUITS 145 

in order just then, but that he was going to arrange it 
right away, and then would send many messengers to him 
to tell him to come. 

After an hour or so, several persons came down to the 
river bank, in state, to invite him to come to the chief's 
house, and be present at his dance. Mr. Duncan was 
shocked, and told the messengers that he had not come to 
participate in a dance. That his errand was too solemn 
a one for that. 

The messengers retired, but soon came back with word 
from the chief, that if the white chief would not come to 
his dance, he would not come to the white chief's talk, 
but that, if he came, the chief and all his people would 
come and listen to him. 

Mr. Duncan still had some scruples about going. The 
idea of a missionary proceeding to a dance had some- 
thing abhorrent in it to him, but when the young chief 
finally came himself, and explained to him that a dance, 
with them, meant just the same as the Book with the 
white people (whatever he may have meant by this), 
Duncan concluded that he had better give in for once, 
and so went with his crew to the chief's house. 

"Upon entering," he said, " I was, with many cere- 
monies, shown to a box, which had been placed for me, 
covered with an expensive fur, in front of a sail doing 
service as a curtain. There were many people in the 
house. Over to one side sat a number of women, who, 
later on, acted as a chorus. I looked just as glum as I 
knew how. I was not going to smile at their dancing, 
anyhow, and felt half-inclined to turn back, even after I 
had been seated. 

"Soon, a man, with a long staff in his hand, stepped out 
in front of the curtain. He made a respectful bow to me, 
and said : 

" ' Welcome, chief ! ' 



146 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

' ' As another man then came out, and placed himself by 
his side, he commenced a sort of improvised chant : 

' ' ' Are the heavens going to change the hearts of our old 
men now ? ' he chanted, striking the time with his staff. 

'' ' Perhaps so,' the other man answered. 

^' The choir now fell in, asserting that the heavens were 
going to change the hearts of their people, when, sud- 
denly, the curtain was drawn aside, and the young chief, 
arrayed in a beautiful suit, stepped forward with very 
graceful movements, struck an exceedingly imposing at- 
titude right in front of me, saluted me, and then looked 
up to the bit of heaven showing through the opening in 
the centre of the ceiling, found in all Indian houses to let 
the smoke escape by, and, to my great amazement, instead 
of dancing, commenced to recite a most beautiful prayer. 

' ' This is about what he said, in his own sonorous, flow- 
ing language : 

" 'Pity us, Great Father in heaven, pity us. Give us 
Thy good Book to do us good, and clear away our sins. 
This chief has come to tell us about Thee. It is good. 
Great Father. We want to hear. Who ever came to 
tell our fathers Thy will ? No — no. But this chief has 
pitied us, and come. He has Thy Book. We will hear. 
We will receive Thy Word. We will obey.' 

''Then he started a plaintive chant, sounding almost 
like a hymn. It was an improvisation of how the 
Heavenly Chief had taken pity on them, and sent the 
white chief to tell them the great truth. Every little 
while, the chorus would repeat what he had sung. 

''He then made a speech to me, offering me the glad 
hand of his people. 

" In the afternoon, the whole village came to my tent to 
hear me preach. Prominent among them was an old, 
blind chief of the uppermost village on the river, 
Skothene by name, who was greatly impressed by the 



FIEST FRUITS 147 

message, and repeated the glad tidings about Jesus again 
and again to the people, and told them that a change 
had now come over their hearts. He even started a 
prayer himself to Jesus to take his sins away. 

"After supper, the chief from the lower village, who 
had acted as my pilot up the river, told me that the old, 
blind chief would like to be allowed to come to my even- 
ing's devotion with my crew, which request was cheer- 
fully granted. About thirty came with him. Hearing 
me singing Christian hymns took their hearts com- 
pletely. I had to promise to teach them to sing the next 
day, which I did, trying to instruct them to sing ' Jesus 
my Saviour,' in their own language. 

" In the afternoon, many of the men came to me, and 
wanted me to write out, so that they could preserve it 
and always look at it, a pledge not to drink any intoxi- 
cating liquors any more. To this pledge they each 
attached their mark, folded it up carefully, and took it 
away with them." 

This was probably the first temperance meeting ever 
held on the banks of the Nass Eiver. 

Some years later, a mission was started, under the 
direction of Mr. Duncan, by the Eev. R. A. Doolan, at 
Kincolith (the place of the scalps), at the mouth of the 
river. This mission was, later on, most successfully car- 
ried on by the Rev. R. Tomlinson, and later still by the 
Rev. (now the Venerable Archdeacon) W. H. Collison, 
who, together with his interesting family, still keeps the 
missionary fire burning at this place. 

Returning to Fort Simpson, it is to be said that, dur- 
ing the winter of 1860 and 1861, the attendance at 
church was very encouraging, some two or three hundred 
at every service, and this, though there were three 
services every Sunday, two for adults, and one for the 
children. 



148 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

As these services, as well as the school, were conducted 
in the native tongue, and as Mr. Tugwell did not seem to 
be able to make much headway in his study of the 
language, of course the burden of the work continued to 
rest on Mr. Duncan's shoulders. But the mere presence 
of a sympathizing co-worker, and the encouraging 
words and cordial symj)athy of a good, earnest, Christian 
brother, were thoroughly appreciated by him, and un- 
doubtedly gave more strength than the mere taking of 
the burden of work from his shoulders could have done. 

What he experienced in his solitude, both before this 
time, and later on, when disappointments came in his 
work, when he saw one or another fall back into sin, and 
his heart was faint, we can easily imagine. 

He has himself told me, that many a night, when he 
felt faint and discouraged, he, before closing his eyes, 
ardently implored God to never let him see another day. 

The Lord always hears the prayers of His children, it is 
said. 

So He did in this case. But in His own way. He did 
not answer the prayer to take His servant home in his 
sleep. But He heard it by giving him greater strength 
to do the day's work, and by sending, now and then, 
great encouragement, so that he could plainly perceive 
that it was the Lord's work he was allowed to do. 

The attendance at school this winter was from one 
hundred to one hundred and fifty children, and from 
forty to fifty adults. 

On New Year's Day the first school feast among the 
natives was held. Soup, rice, and molasses were served 
to an assembly of over two hundred and fifty, and 
speeches, singing, and games were greatly enjoyed by all 
present. 

During the second and third weeks of January, Mr. 
Duncan again called at the houses of the different 



FIRST FRUITS 149 

chiefs, and, in the evening, held preaching services, now 
here, and then there, in order to reach those who had not 
come oat to his regular meetings. During this fortnight, 
the Gospel was thus preached to fourteen hundred 
Indians, all told. 

The school house now had become too small. And 
during the summer preparations were made to erect a 
building (76x36) to serve both as a church and a 
schoolhouse. For the first time, the Indians themselves 
contributed towards its cost, not only by giving their 
labour, but also by direct contributions in the way of 
baskets, carved spoons, and native dishes, which all 
found a ready market in Victoria, as curios. 

At the first service after the new schoolhouse was 
opened, in the Fall of 1861, upwards of four hundred 
Indians attended, the largest congregation ever gathered 
together up to that time. 

Mr. Duncan had, for some time, carried on two 
weekly meetings for those who were candidates for bap- 
tism and inquirers for the truth. He considered this the 
most interesting part of his work, and had the pleasure 
of seeing them attended sometimes by as many as forty 
earnest seekers for the eternal truth. 

In the mouth of October, the state of Mrs. Tug well's 
health compelled the Tugwells to give up their work, 
and return to England. Before leaving, Mr. Tugwell, 
on the 26th day of July, 1861, had the pleasure of 
receiving into the church, by the sacrament of baptism, 
twenty-three persons, fourteen men, five women, and 
four children — the first fruits of the earnest and strenuous 
labours of Mr. Duncan among the Tsimsheans. 

Several others came forward, asking baptism, but, for 
several reasons, mainly because they did not seem ad- 
vanced enough in instruction, they were advised to wait. 
Others, who desired baptism, and were fit for it, were, at 



150 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

this time, deterred from taking the step, by fear of their 
fierce relatives. The only children baptized were those 
of Christian parents. 

While he remained in the Society's service Mr. Duncan 
did not, himself, baptize the converts, as he was not an 
ordained minister. Only in a few isolated cases did he 
make an exception, in baptizing those who were dying, 
when no priest of the Church could be reached. 

Mr. Duncan, at about this time, writes thus of the 
newly baptized : 

" Since these have come fairly out, there has been more of a 
persecuting spirit abroad from the Lord's enemies. This we 
may expect to be increased. The converts are severely tried and 
tempted at present, but we pray they may be preserved faith- 
ful. While some have decided, and many — increasingly many 
— are anxious, others — the wicked — wax worse and worse. 
Drunkenness seems to gather strength, as the facilities for it 
increase." 



XX 

A CHRISTIAN VILLAGE 

AS early as 1859, Mr. Duncan had come to the con- 
clusion that if the work he was carrying on 
should have any permanent results, it would be 
necessary to remove those of the Indians who had become 
subject to the power of the Gospel, from the evil influ- 
ences of the heathen homes and surroundings. And, 
more important still, be it said to our shame, was it, in 
his judgment, to get them away from the degrading in- 
fluence of the white people at the Fort. 

It could not be expected that young people, especially, 
could remain steadfast in their faith, and in their de- 
termination to live clean Christian lives, when they were 
continually exposed to taunts and temptations on the part 
of parents and relatives. 

He, therefore, for quite a while had contemplated the 
removal of those who had become interested in the Gospel 
teaching, to a new home, where they could start a model 
Christian village, keep intoxicating liquors entirely away, 
worship God in their simple manner without taunts from 
scoffers or mockers, and observe the Sabbath day, as be- 
came true followers of the White Christ. 

One day, on talking with an old, venerable chief, and 
telling him that his object in teaching the children was 
to make them good and happy, he was surprised to hear 
the old man echo his own ideas, by saying : 

" Well, if you want to make them good and happy, you 
will have to take them away from here." 

This remark gave him the courage to broach the sub- 

151 



152 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

ject to those who attended his services, aud, from this 
time ou, he incessantly urged upon his friends the ne- 
cessity of taking steps soon for removal to the proper 
locality, where they could start a village of their own. 

The converts, and others who were friendly to the 
Word, soon became convinced that this step was neces- 
sary, and the question now came to the fore, — where 
would the proper place be for the Christian settlement? 
Two or three different places were suggested by his adher- 
ents, but, upon examination of them, Mr. Duncan came to 
the conclusion that Metlakahtla,' situate seventeen miles 
south of the Fort, where these same tribes had had their 
old villages, before removal to Fort Simpson, would be a 
model place. 

After visiting it in the spring of 1860, Mr. Duncan 
describes it thus : 

" A narrow, placid channel, studded with little promontories 
and pretty islands. A rich verdure, a waving forest, backed 
by lofty, but densely-wooded, mountains. A solemn stillness, 
broken only by the cries of flocks of happy birds flying over, 
or the more musical note of some little warbler near at hand." 

What especially commended it to Mr. Duncan was 
the splendidly protected harbour, the fine beach, furnish- 
ing an excellent landing-place for the canoes, and the fact 
that portions of land on many of the promontories had 
already been cleared, and would furnish fine garden spots 
for the colonists. 

It was originally Mr. Duncan's plan to send Mr. aud 
Mrs. Tugwell to Metlakahtla, to take charge of the new 
settlement, while he was to remain at Fort Simpson, aud 
take trips around to the different settlements, and thus 
win a greater number of recruits for the cause, whom he 

'Metlakahtla means "an inlet with an outlet," or "an inlet run- 
ning parallel with the seashore," a " through passage." 



A CHRISTIAN VILLAGE 153 

could from time to time transfer to Metlakahtla. Con- 
templating a removal that year, he, during the summer, 
set to work, draining the ground which he had selected 
for the site of the new village, but Mr. Tugwell's intended 
departure delayed the carrying out of the project to the 
next spring, and of course necessitated Mr. Duncan him- 
self taking charge of the new settlement. 

On the 14th of May, 1862, everything was in readiness 
for the removal. The large schoolhouse, which had been 
built with such a purpose in view, was taken down and 
put into a raft, and was sent towards its destination, in 
charge of a number of men, who were to start the build- 
ing of a temporary house for Mr. Duncan, and plant 
some potatoes at the new location. 

Two days after the raft had started, a canoe from Vic- 
toria brought the sad news that an epidemic of smallpox 
had broken out there. And, in fact, it seemed as if the 
crew had brought the plague with them, as some of them 
had died on the way up. 

Before going away, Mr. Duncan had intended to speak 
a last word to all the Indian tribes. As the shadow of 
the fell disease was now upon them, he felt still more 
impelled at once to see them and warn them. He says : 

"I, therefore, spent the next few days in assembling and 
addressing each of the nine tribes separately. Thus, all in the 
camp again heard a warning voice, many, alas, for the last 
time, as it proved. Sad to relate, hundreds of those who heard 
me were soon and suddenly swept into eternity." 

On May 27, 1862, the departure came to pass. Mr. 
Duncan says : 

" In the afternoon we started off. All that were ready to go 
with me occupied six canoes, and we numbered about fifty 
souls, men, women, and children. Many Indians were seated 
on the beach, watching our departure with solemn and anxious 
faces. Some promised to follow us in a few days. The party 



154 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

with me seemed filled with solemn joy, as we pushed off, feel- 
ing that their long-looked-for flitting had actually commenced. 
I felt that we were beginning an eventful page in the history of 
these poor people, and earnestly besought God for His help 
and blessing." 

Tbey arrived at their uew location the next afternoon 
at two o'clock, and at once set to work with a will build- 
ing their new homes. Those who had gone before had 
already got all the luihber, except some extremely heavy 
beams, carried to its destination, had erected two tem- 
porary houses, and planted fifty bushels of potatoes. 

Every night, after the day's work was ended, the whole 
colony gathered on the beach, a happy family, for sing- 
ing, evening fjrayer, and devotion. 

Mr. Duncan is a very methodical man. Before start- 
ing on this new enterprise, he had drafted the following 
rules, which every adult was required to pledge himself 
faithfully to live up to, before he could become a member 
of this model community. 

The rules were simple, but definite, and pledged each 
inhabitant : 

(1) To give up their ''Hallied," or Indian deviltry. 

(2) To cease calling in conjurers when sick. 

(3) To cease gambling, 

(4) To cease giving away their property for display. 

(5) To cease painting their faces. 

(6) To cease drinking intoxicating drinks. 

(7) To rest on the Sabbath. 

(8) To attend religious instruction. 

(9) To send their children to school. 

(10) To be clean. 

(11) To be industrious. 

(12) To be peaceful. 

(13) To be liberal and honest in trade. 

(14) To build neat houses. 



< 



A CHRISTIAN VILLAGE 155 

(15) To pay the village tax. 

These obligations may seem easy enough to us, but when 
we consider that the first five rules really required of 
these people the surrender of all their ancient national 
customs, which had, for ages, not only occujiied their 
time, but had come to be looked upon with the venera- 
tion of religious rites, we can readily understand that to 
give them up all at once would seem to many of them 
like ' ' cutting off the right hand or plucking out the right 
eye." 

But Mr. Duncan had no idea of making the change an 
easy one for them. That is not his style : it was a change 
of heart he wanted. No half-hearted measures would do. 
No compromise with the devil, or with the heathenish 
past, could be tolerated for a moment. 

No wonder, therefore, that many quailed before the 
sacrifice, and deemed it too severe. But, strict as the 
requirements were, they did not deter those who were 
really in earnest. 

It was a small company which started away with Mr. 
Duncan that day, but what must have been their feelings 
when they, within a fortnight, on the 6th day of June, 
espied coming dashing down the inlet thirty canoes, 
loaded with three hundred people, who were coming to 
join their fortunes with the happy family, which had 
gone before. If there were any faint hearts among the 
pioneers, would not such a sight make them cry with 
joy? 

Among the new arrivals was almost the whole Kitlahn 
tribe, with two chiefs. 

This must have been a great day for Mr. Duncan. He 
could now plainly see that his labours had, indeed, not 
been in vain. 

But he and his adherents were to be sorely tried. 

The awful smallpox plague soon after broke out, in full 



156 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

blast, among the Indians at Fort Simpson. More than 
five hundred of them died from the ravages of the fell 
disease, and, though quarantine, as strict as possible 
under the circumstances, was maintained at Metlakahtla, 
the disease was of course brought there, and soon a great 
number of the newcomers fell victims to the plague. 

God's protecting hand, however, was over the com- 
munity, and only five of the settlers in the new village 
died from the plague. 

One of this number was Stephen Eyan, one of the 
group baptized by Mr. Tugwell the year before. 

Mr. Duncan gives a touching account of his (Eyan's) 
last days : 

" He died in a most distressing condition, as far as the body 
is concerned, away from every one whom he loved, in a 
little bark hut on a rocky beach, just beyond the reach of the 
tide, which no one of his relatives dared approach, except the 
one who nursed him. In this damp, lowly, distressing state, 
suffering from the malignant disease, smallpox, how cheering 
to receive such words as the following from him : 

" 'I am quite happy. I find my Saviour very near to me. 
I am not afraid to die. Heaven is open to receive me. Give 
my thanks to Mr. Duncan. He told me of Jesus. I have hold 
of the ladder that reaches to heaven. All Mr. Duncan taught 
me, I now feel to be true.' 

*' These words he wanted carried to his relatives : 

" ' Do not weep for me. You are poor, being left. I am 
not poor. I am going to heaven. My Saviour is very near to 
me. Do all of you follow me to heaven. Let not one of you 
be wanting. Tell my mother more clearly the way of life. I 
am afraid she does not yet understand the way. Tell her not 
to weep for me, but to get ready to die. Be all of one heart, 
and live in peace ! * " 

Indeed, one such death was well worth all the sacri- 
fices, all the loneliness, which Mr. Duncan had gone 
througli, and all he was still to go through. And there 
were to be many, many more such deaths at Metlakahtla. 






XXI 

LEGAIC 

THIS man, the head chief of the Tsimsheans, 
who, it will be remembered, once sought to 
take Mr. Duncan's life, but who, later on, at- 
tended school, and seemed to come under the influence 
of the Word, was not among those who first went to 
Metlakahtla. 

And this was hardly to be expected. To no man in all 
the tribes would moving to Metlakahtla, and becoming a 
Christian, mean so much as to Legale. 

Mr. Duncan had, in his wisdom, found it necessary to 
do away with all chieftainship among the Christian 
Tsimsheans. This, the very foundation for their heathen 
institutions, must be entirely eradicated before a new 
foundation could be laid. So, his word was : 

" We recognize no chiefs among us, except those who 
excel in living upright Christian lives, and show that they 
are true sons of God." 

At Fort Simpson, Legale was sought, for one purpose 
and then another. He was looked up to and honoured as 
the head chief of the nation. At Metlakahtla, he would 
be as low as the lowest — no higher than the lowest, until his 
life showed that he was a true and exemplary Christian. 

The government of the village was, and of course had 
to be, in the hands of Mr. Duncan. He could brook no 
chiefs beside him, certainly none above him. 

The only assistants he had, in the beginning of the life 
of the new village, were twelve native constables, who 
had to see that peace was maintained, that no strangers 

157 



158 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

coming among tliem misbehaved, and that the people of 
the village lived proi)er Christian lives. It was their 
duty to report all misbehaviom* to Mr. Duncan. 

Later on, the number of constables was increased to 
thirty, and a village council appointed, the membership 
varying in number from time to time. Each one of these 
officials were then given the supervision of ten of the in- 
habitants, an arrangement similar to the class system in 
the Methodist Church. 

Legale' s tribe seemed to have suffered more, in propor- 
tion, than any other from the ravages of the smallpox 
epidemic. 

This visitation brought him to his senses, and sent him, 
with his family, to Metlakahtla, where, for a while, he 
seemed to try hard to live an humble and consistent 
Christian life. But, every now and then, messengers 
came to him from the Fort Simpson Indians. 

He was wanted there for this and for that. When an 
Indian had a feast, or had built, or was about to build, a 
new house, or was to have a potlatch, he did not feel that 
the festivities were complete without Legale' s presence. 

Legale once asked Mr. Duncan what he should do 
about this. Whether he could not go over and help them 
sometimes. Mr. Duncan's answer was : 

" No. You should not go. You have to be one thing 
or the other." 

It was the same old rule — no compromise with the 
devil ; no half-hearteduess. 

After a while. Legale got so that he wanted to be 
friends with both sides, and his talk, as reported to Mr. 
Duncan, threatened to cause bad blood among the people 
at Metlakahtla. 

Mr. Duncan sent for him, and said to him : 

"Legaic, you had better leave here, and go l)ack to 
Fort Simpson. I don't want you here. You are wear- 



I 



LEGAIC 159 

ing the mantle on both shoulders. You want to serve 
both God and the devil, and you are doing the devil's 
work here. You had better leave here and go back, for 
your heart is there with the heathen, and where you can 
be a chief." 

There was nothing for him to do after that but to 
leave. He knew Mr. Duncan. But he was a chief, a 
great chief, and it would never do for him to admit that 
he had been sent away. So, before he pushed his canoe 
off from the beach, he made the crowd a little speech, in 
which he told them that he had to go away. That he 
knew he was doing wrong, and probably would be very 
sorry for it some time. But his friends over there were 
too strong for him and pulled him away. 

How did these new Christians act ? — shrug their shoul- 
ders, and say : 

'' Just what I told you. It is just what I expected, that 
he could not stand. I am not at all surprised " ? 

No. That is the way among many Whites, who pre- 
tend to be good Christians. Not so these people. 

As his canoe scraped against the sand, they knelt down 
on the beach, and prayed God that He would speak to 
his heart, and not allow him to turn away from his 
Heavenly Father. 

And then some of them hastened to Mr. Duncan to tell 
him that Legale had gone. 

They must have been surprised indeed when he an- 
swered them : 

*' Yes, I know it. I told him to go." 

What ? Send Legale away — the head chief ! Not care 
to keep him in the village ! 

A little meditation, perhaps, made Mr. Duncan grow a 
head or more in their estimation. But for that he did not 
care. 

It was late at night, the third day thereafter, when 



160 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Mr. Duncan hearH a knock at tlie door of his little cabin. 
When lie opened it, he found Legaic standing outside. 
He scanned his hands for a weapon. He was a little 
afraid that he had come back in the night for revenge. 
But he discovered nothing. Legale' s eyes were cast down. 

" What do you want ? " 

*' I want to come in." , 

^' What do you want here?" 

'' I want to talk with you." 

''All right. Come in then." 

He looked dejected, and broken-hearted, and walked 
and acted very diffidently and humbly. There was noth- 
ing of the proud chief about him now ! When in the 
room, Mr. Duncan said : 

" So you have come back ? " 

'' I have come back." 

'' Why did you, when I told you to go away ? " 

' ' Because I could not help it. I have not slept for 
three nights. I have come back to say to you : Tell me 
what to do, and I will do it. Tell me what not to do, 
and I will not do it. There is only one thing you must 
not tell me to do, for I will not do it." 

''What is that?" 

' ' Do not tell me to go away. I icill not do it, for I 
cannot do it." 

Impressed by his earnestness, Mr. Duncan allowed 
him to come back, and he now became a truly humble, 
earnest seeker, and the following year was baptized, to- 
gether with his wife and only daughter. 

In his baptism he, at his own request, received the 
name of "Paul," and well might he, for he proved 
another "Saul of Tarsus," indeed. 

The man who once was ready to take Mr. Duncan's 
life, now became known, up and down the coast, as his 
most ardent adniii;pr and assistant. 



LEGAIC 161 

Once, and only once, after that, did he fail in his duty, 
but Mr. Duncan gave him then such a good lesson that 
he never forgot it : 

The constables of the village were furnished with a 
cap, belt and cape, as badges of office. 

Legale, who perhaps in this saw a distinction to make 
up for the loss of his chieftainship, asked Mr. Duncan if 
he would not appoint him a constable, and he readily 
assented. 

After a year or more, when he had found out that the 
office of constable did not only consist of wearing a cax), 
belt and cape, but that there was considerable work 
connected with it, and sometimes even considerable 
danger, he came to Mr. Duncan and said he thought he 
would give it up. 

"All right," Mr. Duncan said. "It is wholly volun- 
tary, you know. If you take no interest in it, I'll not 
have you." 

Legale told him that all the others wanted to give it up 
too. 

"What!" 

Duncan ordered him to stay right where he was, and 
at once sent for all the other constables. "When they 
had arrived, and were all seated around the table in his 
office, he commenced : 

"I have heard that some of you are dissatisfied with 
your job, and want to give it up. If that is so, I want 
to know it. I don't want to force this honourable but 
dangerous office upon any one. It takes men with a 
heart for that business, and I want no one else. Let us 
now hear from each of you in turn. You — what do you 
say ? Do you want to give up your cap and belt 1 " 

"No, sir. I don't want to. I never thought of such a 
thing." 

"And you, sir?" 



162 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

''No. 

And so all around to nine of them. 

The tenth, who belonged to Legale' s tribe, said : 

* ' I have poor health, sir. Sometimes great strength 
and endurance are required to discharge the duties of the 
office. I don't think I have that strength, and some- 
times I have thought of giving it up." 

''All right, sir. You are right. Your health is 
rather poor, and I think myself it may be the best thing 
for you to make place for another man." 

The eleventh answered a definite " No." 

*' Now, as to you. Legale, — I will not ask you. I 
■want to say to you, sir, that you cannot be a constable 
any longer. I want your cap, belt, and cape at once." 

A couple of months later, Legaic's wife came around 
and told Mr. Duncan that he would like very much to 
get back on the force. He evidently missed the authority 
and distinction. 

"No. Tell your husband that he has given it up 
once, and never can be a constable again as long as he 
lives." 

This humiliation he took like a Christian, and never 
expressed any dissatisfaction with Mr. Duncan's de- 
cision. 

For several years he supported himself and family by 
working as an humble carpenter, and whenever he could 
say a word for the Master, who had conquei ed his proud 
and savage heart, he did not fail so to do. 

In 1864, he and Clah were present with Mr. Duncan at 
a meeting in the Indian camp at Fort Simpson. 

After Mr. Duncan had spoken, an old man got up and 
said that he had come too late to do the old people any 
good ; that had he come sooner, when the first white 
traders came, the Tsimsheaus would long ago have been 
good ; but they had been allowed to grow up in sin, and 








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LEGAIC 163 

now their sins were so deeply laid that they could not 
change. 

Mr. Duncan was about to rise to answer the old man 
when he, to his surprise, noticed that Legaic had already 
sprung to his feet, and with great fervour said : 

''I am a chief,— a Tsimshean chief. You know I 
have been bad, very bad, -as bad as anv man here I 
have grown up, and grown old in sin. " But God has 
changed my heart, and He can change yours. Think 
not to excuse yourselves in your sins by sayiug you are 
too old, or too bad, to mend. Nothing is impossible with 
God. Come to God. Try His way. He can save you." 

In 1869, while on the way down from mss Eiver, he 
was suddenly taken ill at Fort Simpson. 

When he became convinced that he could not live he 
sent the following note to Mr. Duncan : ' 

" Dear Sir : 

minH 7=ruV*'' '^^ ^°"- ^ ^^'^^>'' remember you in my 
mmd. I shall be sorry not to see you before I go awav be- 
cause you showed me the ladder that leads to heaven, and I 
am on that ladder now. I have nothing to trouble me,' only 
want to see you. > 'v i 

A malignant epidemic was, at the time, prevalent at 
Metlakahtla, making it impossible for Mr. Duncan to 
leave, though a second and third message came in quick 
succession, and finally this last, which had not been fully 
completed when the Father called him home : 

" My Dear Sir : 

„.• /' ^^'\'^ ""^ '^^* '^"^'' to say I am very happy. I am 

S to n.eet'''"r"."'^^; '''''' and%emptatioi;. f d'on't f^S 
afra d to meet my God, In my painful body I always remem- 
ber the words of our Lord Jesus Christ '' 

Here the pen had fallen from the dying man's hand. 



164 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

This was the death of Legale, once the mortal enemy 
of Mr. Duncan, and of the holy cause he represented. 

His life is not different from that of many others of the 
Indians who found a happy, blessed end, thanks to the 
solace of the Gospel, which Mr. Duncan had brought to 
them at such sacrifice, and with such infinite labour. 

It is only his one-time prominent position, and the fact 
that he, in order to become a Christian, had to give up so 
much more than many of the others, that entitles him to 
any special meution. 



XXII 

ONWARD AND UPWARD 

THE building up of the little village now proceeded 
at a rapid gait. 
Before the Fall of 1862, thirty-five houses, 
averaging 34x18, and each with four windows, had 
been erected. Governor Douglas himself gave the 
windows and the nails for the buildings. 

Mr. Duncan had built a log house for himself, contain- 
ing a sitting-room, a kitchen and a bedroom, provided 
with two bunks, so he even was in a position to enter- 
tain an occasional guest. 

He had also, during the Summer and Fall, erected, in 
time to be able to use it for the first time for the Christ- 
mas services in 1862, a large, octagonal church. There 
were two roaring fires in the centre, the smoke finding its 
way up through an opening in the middle of the roof, In- 
dian fashion. The building had no flooring, the people 
sitting on the bare gravel floor. It could easily hold seven 
hundred people, and soon, as more and more every year 
came to live at Metlakahtla, it was often taxed to its ut- 
most capacity. 

Both of these buildings were, later on, torn down to give 
place to the magnificent Mission House. Unfortunately, 
there are no photographs in existence of the two pioneer 
buildings at ''old" Metlakahtla. 

From its beginning, Metlakahtla became known for its 
rigid observation of the Sabbath day. It was the first duty 
imposed by Mr. Duncan on the Indians, in his very first 

165 



166 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

address to them, aud he had always continued to insist 
that it is a Christian's foremost duty to keep the Sabbath 
day holy, to do no secular work on that day, but to de- 
vote it entirely to worship and rest. 

The Metlakahtla Indians, the name under which his 
people soon became known all over the coast, not only 
observed Sunday rigorously when at home, which they 
could not, of course, very well help. But wherever they 
went, and no matter how great the temptation might be, 
they were true to their convictions, aud not only ab- 
stained from all labour, but made it a point to gather 
around the Word every Sunday. 

Bishop Hills, in 1863, after mentioning the excitement 
attending the short fishing season, and the importance of 
every hour's work while it lasts, writes : 

"But what did the Christian Indians do when the Sunday 
came ? The first Sunday of their fishing season, as Christians, 
although the fish had come up in greater abundance than ever, 
and the season was so short, the Christians said : 

" ' We cannot go and fish.' 

"The heathen were full of excitement, gathering in the 
spoils, but the Christians said : 

" ' No, we are God's people. God will provide for us, and 
we will spend the day as He tells us to do.' " 

Mr. Duncan relates an interesting incident, which took 
place some years later : 

Captain Butler, who was, at the time, superintend- 
ing the building of the telegraph lines through the Inte- 
rior of British Columbia, by the Western Union Telegrajjh 
Company, aud who was in a great hurry to get a ship- 
ment of wire and other supplies up to the large squad of 
workmen in the Interior, who would all be idle till the 
materials reached them, came to Mr. Duncan to ascertain 
if he could furnish him some men to take the supplies up 
the Skeena liiver in their canoes, just as fast as it could 



ONWARD AND UPWARD 167 

possibly be done, whenever the materials should arrive on 
the steamer. 

''Yes," Mr. Duncan said. "I can get you the men, 
and very reliable men at that, but they will not work 
Sundays." 

■ " That is too bad. We are in such a hurry. We have 
a large force lying idle at the Company's expense. 
Every day costs a small fortune. But get me twenty- 
four men and four canoes anyway." 

This was done. When the captain came back with 
his small steamer, they were ready. The steamer was 
towing several canoes, belonging to some Indians, whom 
he had picked up. WTien he came by Metlakahtla, Mr. 
Duncan said : 

" I have done what you wanted me to ; — the men are 
all ready." 

"I am sorry," the captain answered. "I don't need 
them now, I have got enough Indians with me who will 
work on Sunday, and every other day." 

And, with these words, he started towards Skeena 
River with his steamer and canoes. 

The Indians, aggravated at his conduct, sought Mr. 
Duncan's advice as to what to do. 

"He has hired you," Mr. Duncan answered, "and has 
insulted you by passing you by. You had better paddle 
your canoes the twenty miles, and tell him you are ready 
to go to work, as you agreed." 

They did so. It was a good thing for Butler, for when 
he was ready to start his canoes up the river, he found 
his "Sunday and every-other-day " Indians all gone. 
They had only wanted to get their canoes towed up any- 
way, and, under pretense of getting huffy at some treat- 
ment by some of his men, they had all left him in the 
lurch. He was, therefore, more than glad to take the 
Metlakahtla Indians, under the circumstances. 



168 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

He had some boats manned by white sailors, and he 
started them all together one Saturday at noon. 

When Sunday came, the Indians refused to proceed, 
and tied up their canoes for the day on the river bank. 
He coaxed and threatened, but it did not help. Then the 
sailors commenced to taunt and ridicule them, knowing 
the Indians' weakness on that point. But they stood by 
their guns, stayed and held their little meeting, while the 
white sailors pulled on their oars. 

Monday morning they started in afresh, and, before 
Tuesday noon, they came up with the white sailors, and 
shot past them like a streak of lightning. Now it was 
their turn to laugh and taunt. They shouted to the 
sailors that they would tell their friends that they would 
be coming along by and by. 

Captain Butler, later on, had to acknowledge that these 
Indians were the best and most reliable men he ever had 
to deal with, and that they always managed to get ahead 
of those who worked on Sundays. 

After that, he always tried to get Metlakahtla Indians 
whenever he could. 

New Year's Day, 1863, the people of Metlakahtla were 
to pay their first annual village tax, to wit : one blanket, 
or $2.50, for every adult male, and one shirt, or fl.OO, for 
boys approaching manhood. The proceeds were to be 
used towards village improvements ; that year for the 
building of a road around the village. 

Of one hundred and thirty amenable to the tax levy, only 
ten defaulted, and they were excused on account of poverty. 

The total proceeds of the tax collection was one green, 
one blue, and ninety-four white blankets, one pair of 
white trousers, one dressed elk skin, seventeen shirts, and 
seven dollars. 

It is evident that there were no tax-dodgers at Metla- 
kahtla. 



ONWARD AND UPWARD 169 

As to the spiritual condition about this time Mr. Duncan 
wrote the Church Missionary Society as follows : 

"About four hundred to six hundred souls attend divine 
service on Sundays, and are being governed by Christian and 
civilized laws. About seventy adults and twenty children are 
already baptized, or are only waiting for a minister to come 
and baptize them. About one hundred children are attending 
the day school, and one hundred adults the evening school. 
About forty of the young men have formed themselves into two 
classes, and meet for prayer and exhorting each other. 

"The instruments of the medicine-men, which have spell- 
bound their nation for ages, have found their way into my 
house, and are most willingly and cheerfully given up. The 
dark and cruel mantle of heathenism has been rent, so it can 
never be made whole. 

" Feasts are now characterized by order and good-will, and 
begin and end with the offering of thanks to the Giver of all 
good gifts. Scarcely a soul remains away from divine service, 
excepting the sick, and their nurses. Evening family devo- 
tions are common in almost every house, and, better than all, 
I have a hope that many have experienced a real change of 
heart. Thus the surrounding tribes have now a model village 
before them, acting as a powerful witness for the truth of the 
Gospel, shaming and correcting, yet still captivating, them, for 
in it they see those good things which they and their fore- 
fathers have sought and laboured for in vain ; to wit — peace, 
security, order, honesty, and progress. To God be all the 
praise and glory ! " 

In April, 1863, Bishop Hills, of Columbia, came up 
from Victoria to baptize fifty-seven adults. 

Before admitting them to the holy sacrament, he ex- 
amined the applicants carefully. He says about this 
part of the work : 

"It was a strange, yet intensely interesting sight in the log 
cabin, by the dim glimmer of a small lamp, to see just the 
countenance of the Indian, sometimes with uplifted eyes, as he 
spoke of the blessedness of prayer, — at other times with down- 
cast melancholy, as he smote upon his breast in the recital of 



170 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

his penitence. The tawny face, the high cheek bones, the 
glossy, jet black, flowing hair, the dark glossy eye, the manly 
brow, were a picture worthy the pencil of an artist. The 
night was cold — 1 had occasionally to rise, and walk about for 
warmth — yet there were more. The Indian usually retires, as 
he rises, with the sun ; but now he would turn night into day, 
if he might only be allowed to ' have the sign,' and be fixed in 
* the good ways of God.' " 

It is exceedingly interesting to read the bishop's de- 
scription of the church, and of the preparations for the 
baptism : 

"The impressiveness of the occasion was manifest in the 
devout and reverent manner of all present. There were no 
external aids, sometimes thought necessary for the savage mind, 
to produce or increase the solemnity of the scene. 

"The building is a bare, unfinished octagon of logs and 
spars — a mere barn — capable of containing seven hundred per- 
sons. The roof was partly open at the top, and though the 
weather was still cold, there was no fire. A simple table, 
covered with a white cloth, upon which stood three hand- 
basins of water, served for the font, and I officiated in a sur- 
plice. Thus, there was nothing to impress the senses, no 
colour or ornament, or church decoration, or music. The 
solemnity of the scene was produced by the earnest sincerity 
and serious purpose with which these children of the Far West 
were prepared to offer themselves to God, and to renounce for- 
ever the hateful sins and cruel deeds of their heathenism. And 
the solemn stillness was broken only by the breath of prayer. 
The responses were made with earnestness and decision. Not 
an individual was there whose lips did not utter, in their own 
expressive tongue, their hearty readiness to believe and to serve 
God." 

Among those baptized on this occasion was Legaic, the 
head chief, an account of whose life and death was given 
in the foregoing chapter. 

When it has been said, in a publication produced under 
the Church Missionary Society's auspices, that this ab- 
sence of all ''external aids " to devotion was the result of 



ONWAED AND UPWARD 171 

circumstances, rather than choice, it shows either a total 
uuacquaintance with Mr. Duncan's peculiarities and ideas, 
or a wilful perversion of facts. 

From his earliest days, Mr. Duncan has been, shall I 
say — a most intolerant opponent of everything even 
smacking of ritualism. No crosses or altars, or vest- 
ments, or even lecterns, are allowed in any church with 
which he has anything to do. Every service has to be 
as rigorously simple and unostentatious as it is possible 
to make it, and it may well be believed that no bishop or 
any other priest would be allowed to indulge in any high 
church frills, like bowing to the East, or having the 
catechumens kneel before the officiating clergyman, or 
before any one but God. He simply would not have it. 
As he once expressed himself to me : 

" He was Bishop of Columbia ; but I was Pope of Met- 
lakahtla. So it had to be the way I wanted it, or not at 
all." 

We, who know Mr. Duncan, can readily affirm that 
this picture, painted by himself, is not the least bit over- 
drawn. 

It should, perhaps, here be added, in order to explain 
his position on these matters, that it is due to an honest 
conviction on his part that it would be absolutely detri- 
mental to the Indian to allow ceremonies, ritual, vest- 
ments and church decorations to be a part of his religious 
devotion, for the reason that he feels assured that, in 
that case, these outward elements would assume too great 
importance to him, and that they would, in fact, become 
his religion, instead of, as it should be, the faith of a re- 
pentant heart, and the soul resting, its sins forgiven, in 
the loving arms of Jesus, the blessed Saviour. 

It may also at this place be said, that as much as he 
detests forms, and rituals, and ceremonies in religion, 
just as cordially is he opposed to emotionalism, and, from 



172 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

the earliest times, lie has discouraged, as much as he 
could, auy phase of religion, which would particularly 
address itself to the emotions of the natives. With him 
it is, and must be, conviction, faith and practice, and 
nothing else. 

In his sermons, it is the head he addresses, rather than 
the heart. And yet he can sometimes be as tender as a 
woman. 

The bishop, before he left, on the occasion mentioned 
just before this digression, gave a feast of rice and mo- 
lasses to all the village. 

His description will give a new idea, both of their 
ways, and of their accomxjlishments. He says : 

"They assembled in the octagon. Cloths were laid. They 
all brought their own dishes and spoons. There were three 
tables, at each of which one of their chiefs presided. Their 
custom is to eat little at the time, but to take away the princi- 
pal part of the allotted portion. 

*' All rise, before and after the meal, for grace. Singing was 
then introduced, and excellent certainly were the strains of 
harmony poured forth in the English language. Several well- 
known rounds were capitally sung. First, a boat song; 
then : — 

" ' When a weary task you find it, 
Persevere and never mind it,' 
Then : — 

" * Come tell me now, sweet little bird, 
Who decked thy wings with gold ? ' 

and last: — 

"'God save the Queen.' In this they were as quick and 
lively as any children in the world, the men joining too, in 
good time, and with voices sweet and soft. Mr. Duncan 
afterwards addressed them in an earnest speech." 

Six months later, the Eev. E. J. Dundas came to Met- 
lakahtla, for tlie purpose of baptizing thirty-nine more 
adults and thirteen children. 



ONWARD AND UPWARD 173 

lu 1866, the bishop again visited the settlement, and 
then baj)tized sixty-five adults on Whitsunday. And 
in September of the following year, the dean of Christ's 
Church, Victoria, Mr. Duncan's old and beloved friend, 
the Rev. E. Cridge, came up, stayed for several weeks, 
and baptized ninety-six adults, and eighteen children. 

Thus, the good work continued. Almost every year, 
from now on, an increasing number were baptized. And 
every New Year's Day, a large number of new colonists 
were solemnly admitted to the privileges of the Christian 
community. In some years over one hundred joined. 

In this connection it may be said that Dean Cridge, on 
his visit to Metlakahtla, by his charming Christian dis- 
position, completely won the hearts of the Indians, who, 
after this, looked upon him as their best friend, next to 
Mr. Duncan. 

This was made apparent, when Bishop Hills, several 
years later, wrote to Mr. Duncan that he intended again 
to visit Metlakahtla. 

Some time prior thereto, the bishop had had a falling- 
out with Dean Cridge, which occurred in this way : 

A sacerdotal and ritualistic i^riest of the extreme high 
wing of the Church had one day, at the bishop's invita- 
tion, iDreached in Christ's Church in Victoria. He gave 
full vent to his extreme, faddish notions, a matter of bad 
taste, to say the least, as it was well known that the dean 
was an extreme low-churchman. 

After the sermon, the dean announced that never 
again, as long as he was dean of Christ's Church, should 
such a sermon be delivered in that church, an announce- 
ment which was received by the congregation with a 
round of applause. 

The bishop, who was j)resent, went into a paroxysm of 
rage, and not only roundly abused the dean in the vestry, 
after the service, but even went to the extent of having 



174 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

him prosecuted before an ecclesiastical court, ou the 
charge of "brawling in church," a prosecution which 
ended in the bishop taking away his license. 

The result of this abominable treatment of Dean Cridge 
was that not only he, but almost his whole congregation, 
left Christ's Church, and joined the "Eeformed Episco- 
pal ' ' Church, which latter church soon after recognized 
his eminent qualifications by making him a bishop. This 
high office he, to this day, at the advanced age of ninety 
years, still fills with that true Christian love and evan- 
gelical zeal for which he always has been noted. 

When the bishop's message came to Mr. Duncan, he, 
who knew of the Indians' feelings in regard to the trouble 
between the bisho]3 and Dean Cridge, thought it best to lay 
the matter before a meeting of his church, and to ask the 
Indians what answer they wanted him to give the bishop. 

It did not take the Indians long to come to the con- 
clusion that they wanted Mr. Duncan to write the bishop ; 

"Let the bishop first become reconciled with Mr. 
Cridge, and then he may come to Metlakahtla." 

The letter was sent, but no bishop came. 

The Indian Christians at Metlakahtla showed plainly 
enough, by their action at this time, that they were not 
persons with cringing knees, even before the highest 
church dignitaries ; but reserved their Christian privilege 
to insist upon Christian conduct and disposition, even in 
the princes of the Church. 

This declaration of independence on their part should 
have given fair warning to the Society, and to the Church, 
that they were not to be oppressed by any hierarchical dom- 
ination. But it was not heeded, as will hereafter be made 
apparent. In fact, it is not unlikely that their open and 
frank avowal, at this time, was at least one of the causes 
of the persecution, on the part of the Church and State, 
to which they would some day find themselves subjected. 



XXIII 

TEMPORAL ADVANCEMENT 

GOD well knew what He did, when He placed a 
practical business man as missionary among 
these Indians. 

When a Tsimshean became a Christian, he became 
poorer than when he was a heathen. This statement may 
seem absurd, but its correctness is easily proven. To be- 
come a Christian does not make him a smarter hunter, or 
a more skillful fisherman. In other words, if no new in- 
dustry is provided for him, his income remains the same 
as before. Not so with his expenses. When a heathen, 
his old, dirty blanket was sufficient, both for a suit and 
for bedclothes. His wife and children, most of the time, 
trotted around only half-clothed. When he became a 
Christian, he needed a decent suit to go to church in, and 
another for his daily work. His wife required a civilized 
dress, and the children also must be clothed and shod. 
This meant to him quite an additional outlay. 

Therefore, it was absolutely necessary, not only to con- 
vert him to Christianity, but also to open to him new 
sources of industry, new means of earning wages, with 
which to meet the extra demands on his purse. 

This Mr. Duncan gradually set about doing. To begin 
with, he paid the Indians wages for their work on his house, 
and on the church. Then they were paid for all work on 
the public improvements, such as the roads which were 
being built, the drainage necessary, and, later on, the 
building of a public guest house, or market house, where 

175 



176 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

visiting ludiaus could be housed while staying at the vil- 
lage for trading purposes. 

One hundred garden plots were also laid out on a 
neighbouring island, where some of the old villages had 
been located, and distributed among the villagers, who 
thus were enabled to raise all the potatoes they needed 
for household use. 

They were also encouraged in preparing salted and 
smoked salmon, oolakan grease, and dried berries, for ex- 
portation to Victoria, and Mr. Duncan made it a point to 
exhort them to extraordinary efforts to secure furs of all 
kinds. 

After a while, he started a soap factory among them, 
at which cheap soap was manufactured from the oolakan 
grease, an industry which gave steady employment to 
several people. 

But, in order to get rid of their articles for export, and 
to obtain the necessities of life, outside of what the ocean 
furnished them, the Metlakahtla Indians were either 
obliged to go to Fort Simpson to trade with the Company's 
agents, or encourage the visits of trading schooners, who 
were at the time ' ' a visitation indeed ' ' of the coast. 

To go to Fort Simpson exposed them to the very temp- 
tations from which Mr. Duncan had wanted to remove 
them, when he took them to Metlakahtla. Several of his 
people, to his sorrow, while going to the Fort to trade, 
had fallen victims to the temptations there so freely thrust 
upon them. 

On the other hand, the trading schooners were prac- 
tically nothing but grog-shops, and their visits to the set- 
tlements of the Indians were only too frequently marked 
by murder, and the very maddest of riots. 

Mr. Duncan, therefore, soon after coming to Metlakahtla, 
made an earnest effort to have the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany open a store in the village where the Indians could 



TEMPORAL ADVANCEMENT 177 

exchange their furs and other produce, and obtain, in 
return therefore, the necessities of life, without being 
compelled to go to the heathen hell-hole at the Fort. 

The only conditions he imposed were, that no intoxi- 
cating liquors should be sold or kept on the premises, 
that only a reasonable profit should be exacted, and that 
the agent in charge should be a decent man, who would 
respect the Sabbath day, and not, in any manner, throw 
any hindrance in the way of the Christian and civilizing 
work carried on in the village. 

The directors of the Company, who did not much fancy 
the removal of all these Indians from the villages around 
the Fort, refused to grant this reasonable request, and, 
what was more, when Mr. Duncan attempted to induce 
one after the other of the Christian merchants in Victoria 
to establish a branch store at Metlakahtla, the Hudson's 
Bay Company, which, at the time, was just about almighty 
on the coast, insinuated to each of them that he might 
not find it to his interest to take up this enterprise. They, 
therefore, one after the other, backed out, after first hav- 
ing taken very kindly to the proposition. 

But Mr. Duncan was not the man to be daunted. He 
knew something about business himself, and what he did 
not know, he could learn. And he concluded to open a^ 
store on his own account at Metlakahtla. 

He could buy furs, and other articles from the Indians 
himself, and ship them to Victoria, and, in return, sell 
them what they needed. 

By being exceedingly careful and saving, he had been 
able to put away quite a portion of the meagre salary of 
$500 per annum, which the Society paid him while at the 
Fort, and this small capital would now enable him to 
purchase and pay cash for a small stock of goods, such as 
the Indians needed. 
I But he soon ascertained that capital was not the only 



178 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

thing which he required. He was nearly six hundred 
miles from Victoria. His exports had to be shipi^ed out, 
and the goods that he needed had to be shipx3ed in. And 
the Hudson's Bay Company's steamers were the only 
means of communication along the coast. 

He was hardly prepared for their decision that their 
steamers would not be allowed to carry any freight, 
either to or from Metlakahtla. 

But when it came, he made up his mind that a little 
thing like that was not to baulk his plans. 

He determined to buy and fit out his own schooner, 
and have the Indians run it up and down the coast. It 
would give more of them a living. That was all. 

He laid the matter before the Governor in Council, who 
agreed to advance him, from the public funds, five hun- 
dred dollars. The schooner could be bought for fifteen 
hundred dollars. Mr. Duncan, who wanted the Indiana 
to feel personally interested in the enterprise, persuaded 
them to take shares of five dollars each to the amount of 
four hundred dollars, all told, and the balance he ad- 
vanced from his own private funds. 

Soon the Carolina, with a native master and crew, 
was running up and down the coast, bringing goods for 
the store uj) to Metlakahtla, and furs, by the ton, down, 
for, as soon as the other Indians living outside of Metla- 
kahtla found out that their marten skins, which, at the 
Company's store had only been worth twenty-five cents, at 
Mr. Duncan's establishment brought their possessor from 
three to four dollars ; mink skins instead of two cents, 
fifty or seventy-five cents, and sea otters, instead of ten 
to twelve dollars, one hundred dollars, they soon found 
it to their interest to transfer their trade to the new store. 
And the Carolina now carried a full cargo both ways, 
and was kept busy running all the time. 

When, at the close of the year, Mr. Duncan was able to 



TEMPORAL ADVANCEMENT 179 

pay each of the Indian stockholders five dollars per share 
in dividend, they did not like to take the money at first, 
as they thought they would then have to give up their 
interest in the schooner ; but when he explained to them 
that they still retained their interest, just as before, as 
part owners, and that the sum which he paid them only 
represented what they had earned on their investment, 
they almost "died." 

After that, they wanted to rechristen the schooner, 
" Hah " (a male slave). " For," said they, '' he does all 
the work, and we get all the profits." 

The Indians evidently do not agree with us as to the 
gender of a ship. 

But it stands to reason that the Hudson's Bay Company, 
which, at that time, was the Standard Oil Company of 
the Northwest coast, not to say of all Canada, and used 
to having things pretty much its own waj^, would not stand 
for a man like Mr. Duncan, a poor man, and a mere mis- 
sionary at that, interfering in this manner with their 
monopoly, without trying to make him feel its power. 

An order was given to overbid him on furs, and to 
undersell him on goods, which the Indians wanted. He 
would soon find that it did not pay to play with a con- 
cern like theirs. They could well afford to run their busi- 
ness at Fort Simpson for, say a year, even at an absolute 
loss, if necessary, in order to crush this inconvenient and 
obstreperous rival. 

But the Company did not reckon with the kind of man 
Mr. Duncan was. 

When he heard of these plans of theirs, he went to the 
Company's representative, and said to him : 

"I have heard what the Company has concluded to do, 
and I am perfectly willing to have you carry out its orders. 
I do not fear you, and I will tell you frankly how I will 
act in the matter, so that you may take your measures ac- 



180 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

cordingly. My goods are all paid for, and it will not 
break me if I do not sell a i)ound or an ell of my stuff. 
The moment I find that you raise the price of furs above 
a fair living price, or lower the price of goods below a fair 
profit, I will turn the key in the lock of the door of my 
store, and not sell another article. When the Indians 
come for goods, or with furs, I will send them to you, and 
tell them they can make a good profit by coming to the 
Fort. But, mind you, you will have to keep on with 
your plan, and your prices. For the moment I learn that 
you have come down on the furs, or have come up on 
your store goods, I open the door of my store again, and 
tell the Indians to come and trade with me once more. 
That I can do as well as you with them. And, consider- 
ing the way they feel towards you, I think I will be able 
to get them to do just about as I tell them. Now, 
honestly, what do you think about my plan ? " 

Captain Lewis evidently did not think much of it, for 
the Hudson's Bay Company's order was revoked, and, for 
the first time in its history, this purse-proud and power- 
'ill Company had to acknowledge a defeat in its great 
trade of the Northwest Territory. 

I And what was more, not only did the directors conclude 
it was good policy not to baulk Mr. Duncan in his enter- 
prise, but, within another six months, they notified him 
that they would be able to ship his freight on their 
steamers from that time on, if he desired to sell his 
schooner. This he did, obtaining a cash price of one 
thousand dollars for it. 

Of course, he paid back to the provincial government 
its proportionate part of the proceeds of the sale price, 
undoubtedly a surprise for the government, which nat- 
urally never had expected to get back a cent of any 
money advanced to a missionary. 

Never was victory more complete. 



TEMPORAL ADVANCEMENT 181 

The profits of the trading establishment at Metlakahtla 
were largely applied to public improvements of all sorts, 
and to such new enterj)rises as promised to give employ- 
ment to the people at their own home. 

Very soon a blacksmith's shop was started, then a car- 
penter's shop followed. 

At an early day Mr. Duncan had told the Indians that 
he would teach them how to make water saw lumber for 
them. "When he first came to Metlakahtla, he had in 
mind a fine water-power not far away. 

When the water-wheel had been put in position, and a 
sawmill started, one of the Indians came to him, and 
said : 

*' I want to die now." 

" Why do you want to die? " 

*'0h, I want to go and meet our old chiefs, and tell 
them the wonder I have seen, that you have made water saw 
wood. They never heard or saw anything like that while 
they lived, and I want to be the first one to tell them." 

He sat down on his haunches a whole day by the mill, 
and seemed to take in everything intensely. 

Strange enough, he did die a short time afterwards. 

Some years later, Mr. Duncan, discovering some suit- 
able clay near by started a brick kiln, which soon made 
all the bricks they needed for their chimneys, and con- 
siderable for export to other camjDS. 

After he had been at Metlakahtla a short time, Mr. 
Duncan concluded that it would be well to give the prom- 
inent Indians some share in the government of both the 
village and the church. He, therefore, appointed a 
number of natives to be members of a village council, to 
which council, together with the constables, whose num- 
ber now had been increased to twenty, he gave an advisory 
voice in relation to all village affairs. 

Of course, Mr. Duncan naturally reserved to himself 



182 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

the final decision of all matters, while he, with great ur- 
banity, listened to all they had to say on any question, 
and generally followed their advice. 

He also apjDointed such number as he, from time to 
time, deemed loroper, to act as elders of the church. 

After a while he thought he would try the experiment 
of having them elect their own village council and elders. 
His first experience convinced him that he could fully 
trust them. 

An elder was to be elected. 

He called into the council-chamber the leading men of 
the village, and told them that as they knew their fel- 
lows in daily life, and when away from the village, he 
had made up his mind to have them vote for whom they 
thought would be the best man for elder. 

He announced the mode of election to be as follows : 
He would go into the next room. Then, one of them at a 
time could come in there, and tell him whom he wanted 
to vote for. 

The first man in voted for Silas. The next one also. 
He was very much surprised to see that Silas had a great 
majority of the votes cast. He himself had never thought 
much of Silas. He was a quiet, reserved man, who never 
had much to say, or testify. When the election was 
over, he told them of his surprise at Silas receiving such 
a vote, and asked them how it came about. 

They said: "You don't know him. He is so quiet 
here. But when he is out at the fishing stations, on Sun- 
days, he always gathers the people around him, and 
prays, speaks and exhorts, and does a great work. 
Greater than any one of us." 

And thus Mr. Duncan found it to be. Silas proved 
one of his best men, and still he had never suspected it. 

Later on, Mr. Duncan got up another mode of election. 
At that stage very few of the electors could write. So 



I 



TEMPORAL ADVANCEMENT 183 

they could, of course, not vote by ballot. He wanted to 
get a perfectly free expression, and let every man have a 
secret vote. This is how he arranged it : 

Mr. Duncan nominated a certain candidate. Every 
elector was furnished with a button. Then Mr. Duncan 
took a deep hat, and j)assed it in front of them all slowly. 
When the hat was before him, the elector was instructed 
to put his hand, in which he held the button, way down 
to the bottom of the hat. If he had any objection to the 
man proposed, he should drop the button in the hat. If 
he was favourable, he should withdraw the hand retain- 
ing the button in it. 

Once a certain man had been proposed for elder. 
When the ballot was closed, there was one button in the 
hat. 

Mr. Duncan told them that while one button would not 
defeat an election, he wanted to know if there really was 
an objection, or whether the button had been dropped by 
mistake. So he said : 

" I will pass the hat again. Everybody put his hand 
in again. If the one who dropped his button let it fall 
by mistake, he can pick it up again when he puts his 
hand in." 

The hat went around again. The button was still there. 
There evidently was no mistake. 

Mr. Duncan had never heard aught against the man 
nominated, and was anxious to know whether the black 
ball was due to spite, so he said : 

''I don't want to declare this man elected now. Let 
the man who dropped this button come to my office to- 
morrow some time, and tell me why he did so." 

The next morning, very early, before he was out of bed 
even, he noticed a man walking back and forth in front 
of his office. He opened the door. 

" Well, what do you want 1 " 



184 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

" I am the one who dropped that button." 

"Ah — you had good grounds for it, I suppose? " 

"I will tell you, and you can judge for yourself. He 
and I were at the store together one day. He paid for 
some goods. By mistake he got one dollar too much in 
change. After a while he showed it to me, and asked me 
if he should give it back to the storekeeper, or keep it. I 
told him to give it back. And he did. But I thought 
that a man, who did not know enough to be honest, was 
not fit to be an elder of the church." 

That man was not declared elected, though there was 
only one button against him. 

Later on, this mode of election proved too slow. 

Another course was then adopted, by which ten men 
could be elected in half an hour. 

The electors were stood up, with their faces to the wall, 
all round the room, and told not to look around. When 
a man had been nominated, any person who was opposed 
to him was told to put his closed fist behind his back. 
If favourable, the open hand. Sometimes Mr. Duncan, 
who of course was the sole judge of the election, saw a 
closed fist move very violently behind some back. Ten 
or more closed fists defeated the candidate nominated. 

At the present time, when all the electors are able to 
read and write, the election is by ballot, every New 
Year's Day. 

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say, inasmuch as Mr. 
Duncan is a confirmed bachelor, that there is no female 
suffrage, and never has been any at Metlakahtla. 

What is more remarkable, perhaps, is that there are no 
suffragettes either. 



XXIV 

INTERESTING INCIDENTS 

THE ^'Highmas"' of Duncan's time was sick. 
His brother, Womakwot, came after Mr. Dun- 
can. This was while he still resided at Fort 
Simpson. When he came near the house, he found out 
that a medicine-man was in there, working upon him. 
The women outside tried to persuade him to go by and 
not enter the house, as he would disturb the work ' But 
he boldly entered at the front door. 

Highmas was wholly naked in a very cold room, and the 
medicme-man was rattling away over him for dear life 

When Mr. Duncan came up, the medicine-man '^blew 
oil steam," and quit his work. 

Mr Duncan took the man's pulse, and found him in the 
midst of a severe chill. He saw that it was necessary to 
restore his circulation, if he should not die then and there 
and ordered him covered up quickly with many blankets! 
and placed close by the fire. 

He then took the brother along with him to the Fort 
and gave him some medicine for the sick man. Highmas 
recovered. ^ 

Two or three years later, Highmas came, with his peo- 
ple to Metlakahtla, from Victoria. Mr. Duncan heard 
tnat he had whiskey in his canoe, and sent for him. But 
as he was not a magistrate at the time, he could only 
give him a tongue-lashing. He abused him roundly for 
Dringmg fire-water among his people and corrupting them, 
so they would go back to their old savage state. 

^ The head chief of the Kitseesh tribe 
185 



186 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

He answered sullenly, that lie did not want to be a 
white man. He only wanted to be an Indian, and retain 
the customs and ways of the Indian. 

He was at the time dressed in a pea-jacket. 

" If that is so," Mr. Duncan answered him promptly, 
"you should be consistent. You should carry the 
blanket of an Indian and not go around with a white 
man's good coat on your back." 

This must have taunted him, for, with a violent move- 
ment, he tore off the coat, and threw it at Mr. Duncan's 
feet, saying that he wanted nothing belonging to the 
white men, and that Mr. Duncan could keep it. With 
this, he rushed out of the house. 

An hour or so later, his wife came in, and commenced 
to abuse her husband in every way : 

" Highmas is such a big fool ; he has no sense at all. 
He is a very foolish Indian. He don't know what he is 
doing. I am very much ashamed of him. You must 
forgive him." 

'' What is it you want ? " 

It was the coat she wanted. 

Mr. Duncan told her : "Take it — I don't want it. It 
still lies where he threw it. I have not touched it." 

She picked it up triumphantly, and went out, evi- 
dently very well satisfied with the results of her diplo- 
macy. 

One day, while Mr. Duncan was on a visit in Victoria, 
an Indian from the reservation near by had shot at a 
man standing close by the mast of a schooner, just as it 
passed out of the harbour, and, while he missed the man, 
the bullet had hit the mast. The next day, the chief of 
police met Mr. Duncan on the street, and told him about 
the incident, and said that he did not know how to 



INTERESTING INCIDENTS 187 

secure the arrest of the Indian, inasmuch as they did not 
even know his name. 

As Mr. Duncan told him that he thought he might 
help them in the matter, the Governor, later in the day, 
sent for him, and asked his advice. He unfolded a plan, 
which afterwards was successfully carried out. 

The next day, at 1 : 30 p. m. , Mr. Duncan was to go to 
the reservation, gather the Tsimsheans together, find out 
from them who did the shooting, and try to persuade the 
Indians from taking the guilty man's part. This he did, 
and found that Cushwaht was the guilty party, and that 
he was hidden in a Haida house near by. 

The reader will, i)erhaps, remember Cushwaht as the 
Indian who had volunteered to kick Mr. Duncan's head on 
the beach the day Legale was going to make an attack on 
him in the schoolhouse ; also, as the same man who had 
smashed the lock of the schoolhouse door, and who had 
threatened to kill Mr. Duncan. 

Mr. Duncan told the Indians that Cushwaht had com- 
mitted an outrage, which the white men could not over- 
look. But that they only wanted Cushwaht, and would 
not harm any other Indians, if they did not interfere in 
the matter. 

This was so much contrary to their idea of law and 
procedure that they seemed unwilling to believe it, 
thinking that the government would be sure to take its 
vengeance on all of them. 

Mr. Duncan, in order to satisfy them that they were 
wrong, offered to stay among them, as a pledge of good 
faith. In this way he kept them apart, behind a 
mound, some distance from the house where Cushwaht 
was hidden. 

When the smoke from the gunboat appeared, the 
Indians made a rush away from him, but he called them 
back. And when the red jackets came marching up, 



188 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

there was another rush away. But he called them back 
again, and succeeded in quieting them. 

The Governor then asked him to call on the Haidas to 
surrender the man. But they refused. After he had re- 
peated their answer, he, by request, returned to them, 
and told them that the Governor gave them just ten 
minutes in which to surrender the man. If they did, no 
harm would come to any one of them. But, if they did 
not, the troops would charge on them, and they would 
probably all be killed. Still no move. 

He held his watch in his hand. When there was one 
minute left, he told them : 

"You had better produce him now. If you don't, I 
am afraid you will be sorry." 

Just as the time was up, they brought Cushwaht out, 
and turned him over to the military. 

They were going to take him to jail, when Mr. Duncan 
protested to the Governor, and insisted that the man 
should be flogged publicly, as the Indians cared nothing 
for jail. This was done, and Cushwaht was thereupon 
committed to await his trial. 

It seems that in those days of primitive justice, even a 
governor and a magistrate did not consider it out of the 
way to punish a man first, and try him afterwards. It was 
perhaps the only safe course to take with the Indians. 

Some days afterwards, the jailer came and told Mr. 
Duncan that there was an Indian in jail who would like 
to see him. He went in, and found that it was Cushwaht. 
He sat in his cell, looking very dejected and gloomy. 
When he saw Mr. Duncan, he said : 

"I was bad to you. You pitied me. You did not 
punish me. Pity me now. Save me ! ' ' 

" If I do, will you promise to be a better man ? " 

" I will. If you will get me free, you shall never find 
any fault with me. Pity me ! " 



INTERESTING INCIDENTS 189 

Mr. Duncan went to the Governor, and pleaded for the 
poor fellow. As he had not injured anybody, the 
Governor set him free on condition that Mr. Duncan 
would vouch for his good behaviour. This he did. 
Cushwaht went home right away in his canoe, and when 
Mr. Duncan, a short time afterwards, returned to 
Metlakahtla in the steamer, Cushwaht at once re- 
ported to him, and assured him of his complete al- 
legiance. 

After that day he became a good Indian, and was al- 
ways loyal to Mr. Duncan. Though he never moved 
away from Fort Simpson, or became a Christian, he often 
attended public worship, and seemed to be a very re- 
spectful hearer, if not a doer, of the Word. 



There is a sad story connected with the life of Simeon 
Johnson, the man on the lower row, farthest to the 
reader's right, in the illustration on a near-by page : 
"Mr. Duncan's Pioneers." 

He was a murderer. 

It was discovered in this way : 

When Mr. Duncan had been but a few years at 
Metlakahtla a man came very late one night to his 
house. He asked him what he wanted, as he was a little 
suspicious, and never knew what moment some one 
might come to kill him. 

"I want to talk with you." 

" Why do you come so late ? " 

*' It is about a great secret." 

"All right. Come in then," he told the man, still 
"watching him very closely. 

After a while he confessed that he and two other In- 
dians had one day, several moons ago, away south, met a 
canoe with two white men, who had been good to them, 



190 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

and given them biscuits. ^ At the command of Sebassah, 
a mighty chief of the Kithrathtlas, who was one of the 
three, they shot and killed the white men, and took their 
effects. 

One of the Indians had since died, and this one now 
feared the same fate. He had heard Mr. Duncan preach, 
and knew now that he had done a great wrong, and his 
friends, with whom he had talked about it, had advised 
him to come to Mr. Duncan and tell him all. 

What to do, Mr. Duncan did not know. He advised 
the fellow to say nothing to any one about it till he heard 
from him. 

He then wrote the attorney-general in Victoria, who 
advised that the matter be droj^ped, as they could not 
convict, inasmuch as there were no witnesses, etc. 

Mr. Duncan thought it was too bad to take this course, 
as it certainly would encourage the Indians to kill more 
white people. But he was obliged to let the matter rest. 

Some time later, when the Gold -Commissioner for the 
Interior, who was a magistrate, came to Metlakahtla for 
a visit, Mr. Duncan talked the matter over with him. 
They agreed to act together, and arrest the murderous chief. 

Mr. Duncan sent his constables after Sebassah. They 
performed their duty, and brought him into court. He 
was a haughty, self-important fellow, with two slaves 
supiDorting him, one by each arm. Other slaves brought 
a feather bed into court for him to sit upon. His wife 
also accompanied him into the hall of justice, as did a 
number of his retainers. 

When the charge was read to him, he said he was not 
the only Indian who had killed white men. 

''Who are they r' 

' Such action always had a bad influence on the Indians. They saw 
in it an evidence of fear, which %vould naturally give them courage to 
attack those who had thus shown the white feather. 




REV. R. TO.MLIXSOX AXD FAMILY 







J^^^^^ jMjM^ ^^JJ^L ,^^'*i^_ ^^^k^ ''^^^^Ifli^^fekB^^f^^ 


Wa ■•#>'# f^ M 1m 








ipjH 



MR. DUNCAN'S PIONEERS 



INTERESTING INCIDENTS 191 

He theu related how four or five Indians, some years 
ago, had killed five white men in a canoe, eighty miles 
south of there, and gave their names. 

The court was adjourned. Warrants were issued for 
the other Indians. They were arrested, and an examina- 
tion was held over all of them. 

They all fully confessed their murderous deeds. Simeon 
Johnson was one of the last batch. 

The magistrates committed them all for trial, and sent 
them down to Victoria. 

When the time for the term of court came, Mr. Duncan 
was summoned to go down. 

The attorney-general told him that he could not prose- 
cute them for murder, as he did not know the names of 
the murdered men, and, besides, there was no evidence 
except their own confessions, which were not sufficient to 
convict upon. 

Mr. Duncan said : 

'■^ That is too bad. If you let them go, no white man's 
life will be safe among the Indians. They must get a 
healthy respect for the law, and feel that their evil deeds 
will be punished. If you do not prosecute and convict 
thera, you will have to be responsible for the conse- 
quences to all of us white men who live up there." 

'' I could perhaps change the charge to piracy on the 
high seas, with violence." 

** All right. I do not care what the charge is, if they 
are only punished." 

One of the directors of the Hudson's Bay Company, 
who was anxious to curry favour with the Indians, told 
Mr. Duncan that he would get them to plead not guilty, 
and get them a lawyer, and that if he did so they could 
not be convicted. Mr. Duncan tried to convince him of 
the moral wrong he would be guilty of if he did so, but 
all to no purpose. 



192 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Just before court was to open, Mr. Duncan went into 
the jail to see the Indians. 

''Has any one seen you ? " 

"Yes." 

"Who?" 

*' One of the Company men." 

" What did he say ? " 

" He said we should say that we did not do it." 

'' Are you going to do that ? " 

''No, we will tell the truth." 

"That's right. That's the way to act. You do that 
when you get into court, and I will do the best I can for 
you." 

When called into court, Mr. Duncan interpreted and 
explained the charge to them, and asked them : 

"Did you do this?" 

They all nodded, hung their heads, and said : 

" Yes, we did." 

"Enter a plea of guilty," said the judge. Sir Mathew 
Bigbee. Whereupon, he delivered a long speech to the 
Indians, which was interpreted by Mr. Duncan, and 
finally sentenced them to be hanged. 

" But," said the judge, " many snows have fallen over 
our white brothers' blood, and your friend Mr. Duncan 
tells me that you were ignorant, and did not know what 
bad things you did, so I will consult with the other white 
chiefs, and see if they can make your punishment lighter." 

He laid the matter before the Lieutenant-Governor in 
Council, with the result that the sentence was commuted 
to imprisonment for life, but on the condition that they 
should serve their term at Metlakahtla. 

They were then, by the court, handed over to Mr. 
Duncan, with the understanding that they should live at 
Motlakalitla, and have the freedom of the village limits, 
as long as they behaved themselves ; but when not, to be 



INTERESTING INCIDENTS 193 

turned over by him to the proper authorities for life- 
imi)risonment. 

He took them along. 

Simeon Johnson, and the man who came to Mr. Duncan 
at night, and confessed, became good earnest Christians, 
and later on went along with him to new Metlakahtla. 

Sebassah, in a way, sought to be a better man ; but had 
considerable difficulty in conquering his haughty spirit. 

When Bishop Ridley tried to get a foothold against 
Mr. Duncan, and di"ive him away from Metlakahtla, this 
convicted murderer and ticket- of -leave man was one of 
the ''chiefs" whom he numbered among his few ad- 
herents. 

>[; >fs ^ ^ ^ ;}: 

Sometimes, it might, of course, be desirable to get some 
evil-minded, or evil-doing, man out of town. Mr. Duncan 
had a way of accomi)lishing this without violence, which 
occasionally might prove dangerous, and cause bloodshed. 
In the centre of the village, close to the Mission House, 
was, after the first five years at Metlakahtla, located a 
bastion, an octagonal building, the lower part whereof 
was used for a jail. The upper part formed a balustrade, 
and was provided with a tall flagstaff, on which, on fes- 
tive occasions, the English colours were hoisted. 
When a bad man was desired to leave town, Mr. Dun- 
[ can hoisted on this flagstaff a black flag, showing that 
I there was a public enemy in cami). The man who was 
I offensive knew well enough who was meant. Usually, 
' the people knew it too. If they did not, Mr. Duncan let 
a few trusted ones know who it was. That was enough. 
i In a few moments public opinion was aroused. As soon 
I as they saw the flag, the tongues commenced to wag. If 
I any one met the man, he would look at him askance. 
' Some one might say right to him : 

" You better get out of here. We don't want you." 



194 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

This was sufficient. No one could resist the public 
and general scorn and abhorrence which the black flag 
indicated. 

In one instance only was the black flag not sufficient to 
drive a ''devil " out of town. 

He was a chief, who had just succeeded to his rank, 
upon the death of his old uncle, Neyahshlackahnoosh, 
the old head chief of the Kitlahns, and now was anxious 
to show what he could do, perhaps in order to do justice 
to the old adage, that new brooms sweep clean. 

There were forty or fifty of his tribe at Metlakahtla. 
He was a surly, disgruntled fellow. One Saturday night 
he called a secret meeting of the members of his tribe, at 
which he railed about how their old, time-honoured cus- 
toms were being abolished, their old, proud memories 
disgraced, and their warlike and brave family traits 
eradicated, and then exhorted them to go back to the 
old feasts, joys, and pleasures. 

No one said anything. Not a single man expressed 
disapproval of what he had said. 

Mr. Duncan learned of the meeting Sunday morning. 
This looked very much like mutiny. Heroic measures 
were evidently required, and that at once. He made up 
his mind that he must have that chief out of town before 
service, or no one could tell where it might end. 

So he hoisted the black flag at once. 

Oh, what a talk it started ! '' Who can it be?" 

He called two constables, and told them to go at once, 
and tell the chief to take his canoe and get out of there 
before eleven o' clock. 

The black flag was not sufficient in this case. It 
meant: "There is no one with you. Tou are our 
enemy. We are all down on you. " 

This man had an idea that so long as no disapproval 
was voiced at the meeting, he was backed by a certain 



INTERESTING INCIDENTS 195 

element in the town — that public opinion was not against 
him. The black flag did not tell the truth as to him. 
He, therefore, refused to go. 

Mr. Duncan now steiDped out in front of his cottage 
with his revolver in his hand. He stood where the man 
could plainly see him, and told the constables : 

" Go over and tell him from me that in ten minutes, 
by the watch, his canoe is to be hauled down, and he on 
his way out. If not, I will meet him face to face. And 
one of us, perhaps both, will die." 

Inside of five minutes, the chief's belongings were 
brought down to the beach, his canoe pushed off, and he 
went his way. 

The black flag came down. 

Nothing was said by Mr. Duncan about the affair that 
day. On Monday, he sent for all the men who had been 
present at the chief's meeting, and gave them a straight 
talk: 

"I hear you have been at the meeting of the new chief 
of your tribe, and that he talked ' bad,' and that none of 
you showed any disapproval of what was said. Now, I 
want to know what impression this talk made upon 
you. If you want to go, you are at liberty to do so. 
You are also welcome to stay. But one thing I want you 
to know. I want no one who is dissatisfied here. There- 
fore, speak out plainly. There will be no ill-feeling 
about it. All I want is a clear understanding." 

One of them, an old man, arose and said : 

"It is true, we were at the meeting, all of us. We 
heard what Neyahshlackahnoosh said. It made no im- 
pression on us. He is gone. That is well. We do not 
want to go away. Not one of us." 

Several got up and expressed the same sentiments. 

That was the end of that meeting, and of the incipient 
mutiny. 



196 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Neyahsblackahnoosh came back a year later, promised 
to behave himself, and was allowed to live at Metla- 
kahtla. 

What I am now going to relate happened at a later day. 
But it comes properly under " interesting incidents." 

The sawmill at old Metlakahtla, being quite a distance 
from the store, a telephone line was installed between the 
two places. This was many years ago, when telephones 
were still in their infancy, and when the same instrument 
did service as a receiver and transmitter. One could not 
hear and speak at the same time ; but had to put the 
instrument to the mouth and speak, then lift it to the ear 
to catch the answer. 

An old Indian thought that Mr. Duncan had made a 
mistake in putting up such an arrangement as, in his 
opinion, he ought to have had something that could speak 
the Tsimshean language. 

''It may, perhaps, talk English," he said, ''but I am 
sure it cannot talk Tsimshean. Just remember how long 
it took you to learn our language. You only put that 
thing up a few days ago. How can you expect it to have 
learned Tsimshean so soon?" 

"I want you to try it," said Mr. Duncan, who took 
hold of the transmitter, and said to John Tait, who was 
at the other end of the line : 

* ' Leamlahaga ^ is here. I want you to say something 
funny to him over the 'phone." 

He then handed the instrument to the Indian, who took 
hold of it as if he was afraid of it, but finally managed 
to put it to his ear. Then he suddenly dropped the re- 
ceiver. 

"Indeed it can talk Tsimshean, and it can talk non- 
sense, too," he said, and fled. 

' Walking-on-the-air. 



XXV 

HOW MR. DUNCAN BECAME A JUDGE 

IN the early days there lived at Karta Bay, iu Eus- 
sian Alaska, a Eussian trader, by the name of 
Charles V. Barauovitch. 

Baranovitch, who was married to a Thliugit Indian 
woman, was a sharp, smart, unscrupulous man, and not 
at all particular about how he made his dollars, if he only 
made them. 

It did not bother him in the least if he got the best of 
the Indians in a trade for furs, by giving them some fire- 
water, although he of course well knew that it was not 
only against the law, but extremely dangerous, especially 
to all white men who came in their way while they were 
under its influence. 

Baranovitch had a fine schooner, and traded all the way 
from Victoria to Sitka. 

One day, in the early spring of 1863, he came with this 
schooner into the harbour at old Metlakahtla. Mr. Dun- 
can heard a report that he had liquor on board. 

He took his canoe, and went aboard the schooner. But 
he first posted his Indians on the beach, and told them if 
he waved his hand to at once take their canoes, board the 
schooner, and put her on the beach. 

When on the deck of the schooner, he told Baranovitch 
that he had no objection to his trading with the Indians, 
but that he did not allow any liquors at Metlakahtla ; that 
he had heard he was dealing in them, and had them on 

197 



198 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

board, and that before lie allowed the Indians to trade 
with him, he wanted to search the schooner for liquors. 

Baranovitch wanted to know what authority he had for 
such "a proceeding. To which Mr. Duncan answered : 

' ' Authority ? I have no authority, sir, except the 
authority of self-defense. My life is in the hands of these 
Indians. They are my friends now. But if you take 
away their reason, I will have nothing to defend my life 
with. And I am going to prevent your placing my life in 
jeopardy if I can." 

''How?" 

" Do you see those Indians on the beach? They are 
only waiting for a signal from me. The moment they 
get it, they will rush aboard this boat, overpower your 
crew, beach your schooner, and burn it with all its con- 
tents. They will do it at one word from me. They are 
obedient to me now. If they get liquor, they will serve 
the devil, and not me, and the first thing he will tell them 
to do may be to kill me. Will you let me search your 
schooner peaceably, or shall I give those men the signal ? " 

He consented. Nothing was found. It was probably 
hidden away pretty well. In any event, he solemnly 
agreed not to sell any liquor, and shortly after he left. 

Later on, he went to Victoria, and complained to 
Governor Douglas of the high-handed outrage which Mr. 
Duncan had subjected him to. Governor Douglas wrote 
to Mr. Duncan, and told him that he suspected he had 
taken the law into his own hands, but that he did not 
censure him for it. And, in order that he might not have 
to do it again, but have legal authority to protect himself, 
the Governor enclosed to him a commission as justice of 
the peace, with jurisdiction over five hundred miles of 
the coast line of British Columbia, and over all the islands 
of its extended archipelago as well. 

It is perhaps the first time in the history of the world 



HOW MR. DUNCAN BECAME A JUDGE 199 

that a man has been made a judge and a conservator of 
the law on account of having broken that law himself. 

The Governor certainly knew what he did. The very 
life of the Commonwealth depended on the suppression of 
the unlawful liquor traffic with the Indians of the coast, 
and he well knew that no more fearless man could be 
found in the North Country than the little English mis- 
sionary, and that he would see to it that the accursed 
traffic was manacled and stopped. 

It did not take many years, after Mr. Duncan had the 
Governor's commission as a magistrate in his pocket, be- 
fore his name became a terror to all evil-doers anywhere 
along the coast, as far as his jurisdiction extended. 

In less than ten years, the unlawful liquor traffic with 
the Indians had practically ceased. 

It may be that at times all the forms of law were not 
strictly observed in his court ; that all the technicalities 
were not always given the seat of honour ; that sometimes 
the evidence did not go in according to all the many hair- 
splitting rules of lawyers and text-book writers ; that the 
information filed against a prisoner might not always, in 
every particular, be according to the best established 
rules of pleading. But who will have the heart to blame 
this rugged magistrate for brushing aside the web of 
technicalities and hair-fine distinctions, which perhaps 
has been the means of defeating justice oftener than main- 
taining it ? 

He was there to do substantial justice, and he did it as 
he saw it. 

His aim was: "Let no guilty man escape!" And 
none escaped. 

If the evidence was sufficient to create a moral convic- 
tion of a man's guilt, who will blame him for convicting 
the prisoner if it did not always come up to the utmost 
requirements of all the technicalities of the law, espe- 



200 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

cially, as his knowledge of these technicalities was very- 
limited ? 

The fact remains, that not a single one of his decisions 
was ever reversed on appeal to higher courts. 

One charge can certainly not be laid to his court. It 
cannot be said that the court played with j ustice, and let 
the offender off with a punishment so light as to make the 
proceedings a farce. 

I believe it is the proud record of Judge Duncan, that 
only in one single case did a convicted liquor-seller get 
anything but the very highest punishment which the law 
allowed. 

I cannot deny myself the pleasure of devoting a few 
pages to showing how justice was dealt out to offenders 
in the high court of Metlakahtla, between 1863 and 1885, 
when Mr. Duncan presided as its " chief -justice." 

But before that is done must be related the circum- 
stances under which Baranovitch and Mr. Duncan met 
again. 

Several years later, the captain of a South-going steamer 
from Sitka came ashore at Metlakahtla, and asked Mr. 
Duncan if he had any brandy on hand. 

Mr. Duncan informed him that he always kept some 
in his dispensary for medicinal purposes. 

"Oh, my," said the captain, "I wish you would let me 
take some. Baranovitch is on board. He is dying. 
The only thing which can keep him alive, till we get to 
Victoria, is the administration of stimulants, and I do not 
want him to die on the way. Would you let me have it ? " 

Duncan did. What a sight ! The great temperance 
apostle of the coast, the terror of all whiskey -sellers, fur- 
nishing the most notorious illegal liquor-vendor with the 
brandy which he needed to keep him alive on his last 
journey. For lie did really live till he reached Victoria, 
but died a few days after arriving. 



HOW MR. DUNCAN BECAME A JUDGE 201 

Last Decoration Day I saw at Metlakahtla Barano- 
vitch's Indian wife, who was on board the steamer with 
him at the time just mentioned. 

She came up to Mr. Duncan, and shook his hand as 
cordially as if he had been her best friend. I think he 
probably was. 

I am told that she was overheard, at this time, to say 
to Mr. Duncan that her husband always spoke of him as 
one of the greatest men he had ever met. 

Baranovitch was a discerning man. 



XXVI 

FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 



AS to the Indian lawbreakers, Judge Duncan did 
not always follow the strict letter of the law of 
the land. For some of their offences he made 
up his mind as to what punishment would be most likely 
to produce the best results, and then inflicted it, regard- 
less of whether he found it on the leaves of the statute 
book, or not. 

Fortunately, there were no hair-splitting lawyers to 
take appeals from his judgment in those cases. 

He says himself : 

' ' I sometimes went a little outside the law. I never 
have allowed myself to stumble over a law, when some- 
thing good was to be accomplished." 

Thus the sentence, in all cases, when an Indian had 
been guilty of an act of violence which might have re- 
sulted in death, was invariably a public whipping. The 
whole village was then summoned to witness the affair. 
The man was bared to the waist, tied to a post, and 
whipped with a rope, but not with a cat-o' -nine-tails. 

Sometimes the whipping was administered by the judge 
himself, but, most generally, by one of the constables. 

In one case of improper relations with another's wife, 
the injured husband wished to kill the man. But Mr. 
Duncan persuaded him that it would be a greater satis- 
faction to be allowed to whip the seducer in public. I 
think it may safely be surmised that he did not simply 
2)retend to flog his man. 

Once the man to be whipped was of a very savage dis 

202 



lil 



FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 203 

position, so mucli so, that tlie constables said that they 
dared not whip him, for fear that he would kill the one 
who did it in revenge, as soon as he got free. Now, what 
was to be done ? The constables were ordered to blind- 
fold him, so he could not see who flogged him, and were 
cautioned not to utter a word, so that he could not recog- 
nize the executioner by his voice. 

When Duncan arrived at the whipping-post, he merely, 
in silence, pointed to the constable, whom he ordered to 
do the whipping. He trembled, and commenced to talk, 
giving expression to his fears. 

** I forbade you to talk, did I not? " said Mr. Duncan. 
''Now, that you shall not be in the darkness as to who 
whipped you, know that it was myself." 

He took the rope, and laid it on pretty heavily. 

After the whipping, the man was incarcerated for two 
weeks. That was the legal part of the punishment. 

Mr. Duncan had him brought to his room every even- 
ing, and gave him a good lecture. He finally succeeded 
in making the man see that he had really done him a 
good turn, because, by whipping him, he had probably 
saved his life, as the man he had attacked was still a 
heathen, and would have been likely to take his own 
revenge, while now he had declared himself satisfied with 
the punishment meted out to his adversary. 

The man who was whipped on this occasion, at a meet- 
ing not many years ago, when those present gave their 
experiences, stood up and said he was now leading a good 
life. 

"I suppose you would like to know what saved me 
from an evil life," he said. ''Know then, that it was 
Mr. Duncan's whipping me many years ago." 

Such influence had the combination of the Gospel mes- 
sage, and this policy of Mr. Duncan upon getting the best 
of the savage disposition of these Indians, that while 



204 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

there were eleven murders committed among the tribes at 
Fort Simpson the first year he was there, now, for forty 
years, there has not been a case of bloodshed, or even an 
attack with a weapon among the Indians who have come 
with him. 

Once, when Mr. Duncan was away, some of them quar- 
relled, and two of them used their fists upon each other. 
That is the nearest approach to an act of violence com- 
mitted amoug them in forty years ! 

What white community can show a record like this? 

Mr. Duncan's very decided views upon the efficacy of 
flogging as a punishment, in certain cases, may be well 
worth some attention on the part of criminologists. 

He does not hesitate to say that if a murderer and high- 
way robber was, in addition to imprisonment for life, or 
a long term, sentenced to be flogged thoroughly every 
first Monday of every mouth, we would have a consider- 
able decrease in the number of these crimes. 

It would certainly be a dread thing for such a criminal 
to have to look forward to, j ust as the wounds from the 
last flogging had about nicely healed up. 

Probably no man would have to be sentenced the sec- 
ond time for such an offence, after he had such an ex- 
perience for a number of years. 

It might be well worth trying anyhow, unless the con- 
stitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment 
would stand in the way. 

But Mr. Duncan did not believe in meting out flogging 
as a punishment for wife-beating, as the legislatures of 
Delaware and Oregon have decreed. 

He says : 

" It would not be well to send a man back to his wife 
with a sore and aching back, which he could thank her 
for. He would not be likely to say: 'My dear,' or to 
speak any veiy lovely or honeyed words to her, when 



FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 205 

every movement reminded him of what she had brought 
upon him." 

Mr. Duncan's way of handling these cases was original 
and effective. 

When a man had been convicted of wife-beating, he 
sentenced him to imprisonment in the village jail, but for 
no definite term. 

He told the man : 

' ' I will not fix the time of your imjjrisonment. I 
leave that to your wife. When she comes to me, and 
tells me that she thinks you have been punished enough, 
you will get out. Not one day before." 

Mr. Duncan had another peculiar arrangement in con- 
nection with his jail. He did not feed his prisoners. 
They had to find their own fare while in the calaboose. 

When a wife-beater was incarcerated, the constable in 
charge had orders to lock up, with the prisoner, the one 
of his children who brought him his food, for an hour or 
so each day. 

The natural consequence of this was that the prisoner 
would send, continuously, word to the wife, with the 
child, asking her to pity him. Gradually, of course, her 
heart would soften. It hardly ever took more than a 
week before she would come to Mr. Duncan, and say : 

" I think my husband has been punished enough now, 
sir. He promises that he will be good, and never beat 
me again." 

The prisoner would then be sent for. When he ar- 
rived, Mr. Duncan would go out, leaving them alone 
together in the office for half an hour or so. On return- 
ing, he would take pains to let his coming be known by 
a loud cough, or by shuffling his feet. 

When he opened the door, he invariably found them 
in opposite corners of the room, as far away from each 
other as they could possibly get. 



206 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

He then told the man that any one who would beat his 
wife was a fool. 

"What would you think," he would say, "of any one 
who would take a sharp knife and hack his own hand ? 
"Would you not say he was a fool 1 " 

" Yes, sir." 

" Well, that is just what you have done. Your wife 
is part of yourself. And you," he would say, turning to 
the wife, " undoubtedly are quite a bit to blame yourself. 
No man will beat a good woman. Now, see if you can- 
not be better also. Go home now, both of you, and 
behave yourselves. If your temper gets the best of you 
again, kneel down and ask God to help you to overcome 
it." 

In only one single case of wife-beating had the punish- 
ment to be repeated, and after two years at Metlakahtla, 
wife-beating became an unknown offence. If it existed 
at all, which is doubtful, no complaint was ever made of 
it, at any time after that period. 

The stories about the trials of the whiskey-sellers, 
before Judge Duncan, would fill a volume. I can only 
give a few : 

One whiskey-seller, whose name shall not be given, 
was brought into Mr. Duncan's court room, a large, lofty 
apartment, in front of the Mission House, where four 
elaborately-carved totem-poles held up the ceiling. He 
was duly convicted, whereupon Mr. Duncan, in sentencing 
him, addressed him as follows : 

" I have the right to give you six months in jail, but, 
as you claim that it is your first offence, and as I have 
never heard of you before, I will let you off with one 
month. But, as the jail is cold, and I am not goiug to 
keep a fire going there for your sake, I will not order 
you to be confined in prison. You shall go with the con- 



FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 207 

stable, aud live at his home for a month, or as long as 
you do what he tells you. If you disobey him, I will 
give him orders to put you in the cell at once." 

He went away. Mr. Duncan saw him occasionally, 
but paid no attention to him, nor spoke to him, until his 
time was up. 

He then sent for him to tell him that he was now a free 
man, and could go wherever he wanted to. 

Mr. Duncan was surprised, or pretended to be, when 
the man thanked him for his kindness, and said : 

''I have never lived in a Christian family before. I 
have never seen the life of Christian people until now. 
Your constable insisted that I should be present at their 
family prayers every day. The kindness of the whole 
family has made such an impression on me that I have 
made up my mind to become a good man. I have never 
owned a Bible before. I am going to get one before I 
leave Metlakahtla." 

And he did buy one in the store, before he left. Mr. 
Duncan, of course, was glad to hear the result of his 
peculiar sentence, and gave the man all possible encour- 
agement in his determination to turn over a new leaf. 

When, some years later, Mr. Duncan was in Victoria, 
and one evening was trudging up the avenue on his way 
to Bishop Cridge's residence, he was hailed by a man in 
a buggy, who asked if he might offer him a ride. Mr. 
Duncan accepted, and to his amazement recognized the 
quondam liquor-seller he had given the queer sentence. 
He learned that the man actually had become converted 
in the Indian house at Metlakahtla, that he had aban- 
doned the liquor-peddling, aud had started a coal busi- 
ness at Victoria, where he had joined the Methodist 
church, of which he now was a prominent member, hold- 
ing a position of trust, and rejoicing in being able to do 
some humble work in the Lord's vineyard. 



208 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

That was not, however, the way all liquor-sellers, 
brought before Mr. Duncan, turned out. 

Mr. Duncan once met one Collins in Victoria, and told 
him that he had a warrant for him, which had not been 
served. 

'' But," said he, ** why do you not quit that business, 
and go in for legitimate trade ? If you do, and come up 
our way, I not only will not have that warrant served, 
but will help you all I can in your trade. But, if you 
will persist in your evil ways, you had better keep out of 
my jurisdiction, for if we catch you up there, I will 
punish you to the full extent of the law, that you may 
feel assured of." 

The man promised. 

Before Mr. Duncan returned, Collins had gone North. 
When he came home, he heard that the man had been at 
an Indian camp, not far from Metlakahtla, and sold 
liquor. There was abundant proof of this new offence. 
As he had already left the neighbourhood, Mr. Duncan 
sent his constables after him with the old warrant. They 
brought him back. 

"Why did you not keep your promise, which you 
gave me in Victoria ? " 

'' I don't care anything about your old warrant." 

"Neither do I. I will not use that now. Here 
is a new charge against you, and there are the wit- 
nesses. ' ' 

The constable had brought the sloop along. 

The sentence was five hundred dollars fine, which was 
duly paid. Then the sloop was confiscated, and the 
liquor destroyed. 

Collins swore, went back to Victoria, and bought a 
new sloop, which he called "Duncan," thus intending to 
throw contumely on the honoured name. But he fared 
badly, and died poor. 



FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 209 

Tlie trial of Peter Garcotitch came a good deal later, 
in fact, after Mr. Duncan's return from his first tour to 
Europe, of which we shall hear later on. 

On his return from England, Mr. Duncan made a short 
sojourn in Victoria. One evening he sat down at table 
in a restaurant with a German friend. It was soon after 
the close of the Franco-Prussian war, and this war was 
the subject of their discussion. 

Mr. Duncan happened to remark that he thought it 
was a just and proper ending of a war, which France 
had had no business to declare. 

As they were leaving, a man at the next table, who 
evidently wanted to pick a quarrel with them, said : 

"You can crow now, but the Pope will be on top 

yet." 

"We did not speak to you, sir," answered Mr. 
Duncan. "What do you mean, anyway? We have 
nothing to do with your Pope. As a gentleman, you 
ought not to mix up in our conversation, when we did 
not address you." 

The man was Peter Garcotitch, a Slavonian trader. 
He afterwards told Mr. Duncan's agent in Victoria that 
he was going to get even with Duncan. That he was go- 
ing up to his island, and make all his Indians drunk. 

The agent told him he better not do that, as Mr. 
Duncan would put him in jail for his trouble. Peter 
said he was not afraid either of Duncan or the devil. 
They would never get him. 

Several months later, an Indian told INIr. Duncan that 
Peter was at Woodcock's Landing, ten miles or so from 
Metlakahtla, and that he was selling liquor to the 
Indians. 

" Do you know it ? " 

" Yes, sir. I peeped through a hole in the tent, when 
Peter sold a bottle to another Indian. He gave me the 



210 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

bottle and I have brought it to you. And the Indian is 
along outside." 

Mr. Duncan issued a warrant, and gave it to Eli 
Hamblett, a Dane, who had married one of the 
Metlakahtla Indians and was then living in the settle- 
ment, and asked him to take two Indian constables with 
him, and go and arrest Peter. 

Six hours later, the man returned, threw the warrant 
down in front of Mr. Duncan, and said he would not 
serve it. When Peter had been informed that they had 
a warrant for him, he had pulled a revolver, and swore 
that he would shoot any man who tried to arrest him. 

" Don't say you will not arrest the man till you have 
heard me. The majesty of the law must be maintained. 
Will you go if I show you that you can arrest him, with- 
out any danger to your own life ? ' ' 

'' Yes, I will." 

"All right. Take four canoes, and ten Indians in 
each. Let each Indian carry a loaded gun. When you 
get within gun-shot distance of him, stand up in your 
canoe, with the warrant in your hand. Don't you have 
a gun. But have every one of the forty Indians aim his 
gun at his head. Then cry to him : ' Hold up your 
hands, without a weapon, at once, or my Indians will 
shoot and riddle you with their bullets.' If he does not 
obey, command : ' Fire ! ' If he does comply, step for- 
ward, and arrest him." 

"All right, I will go." 

Everything went as the plan was laid. Four or five 
of his men were arrested, and twenty- three casks of 
liquor taken. Peter fled up the river, but they hauled 
in upon him in an hour or two, and he surrendered 
gracefully. 

It was nearly midnight when they arrived. 

"Mr. Duncan, Mr. Duncan," called Peter, "there 



FEOM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 211 

are two hiiudred Indians after me. They want to kill 
me." 

'' You will be all right, Peter. No one will kill you 
here," said Mr. Duncan. "Put him in the jail till 
morning, and have an Indian stand guard over him and 
the liquor till then," was the order to Mr. Hamblett. 

The next day he was brought into court, and asked if 
he wanted any one present at his trial. 

"Yes." He mentioned some twelve or thirteen miners 
at the landing. 

"All right. We will send for them, but then we 
cannot have the trial till the day after to-morrow." 

This was so ordered, and then the day of the trial 
came. 

Mr. Duncan told him that he was glad his friends were 
present, so that they could see that he had a fair trial. 

The two Indians then testified conclusively to the sale. 

Duncan now turned to the defendant : 

"Now, Pete, do you want any one sworn to testify to 
your good character, which I am frank to say would 
weigh quite a bit with me, or to anything else, for all 
thati If so, let me know." 

" Yes, sir, I do. I want to have Harry White sworn 
first. He knows me and my character." 

"Very well, sir. Be sworn, Harry White." 

A big, burly miner stepped forward, was sworn, 
kissed the book, folded his arms over his breast, and 
said, with a great deal of pomposity : 

"Well, sir, I have known Pete for these many years. 
He has been a respectable and honourable man, sir, and I 
always thought he had a good character, until the other 
day, sir, when I found he sold liquor to the Indians." 

"What do you say? Did you know him to do 
that?" 

" I do, sir. — Yes, you did, Pete, and it is no use deny- 



212 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

iug it. I am under oath now, sir, aud I will tell the 
truth. You cannot get me to lie for you." 

' ' Pete, do you want any other witnesses sworn ? ' ' 

I can well imagine the humorous twinkle in IVIr. Dun- 
can's eyes as he put this question to the defendant. 

"No, sir," was Pete's surly answer. 

He was convicted, of course, and paid in ''spot cash" 
the fine of five hundred dollars imposed. 

"Unfortunately," says Mr. Duncan, "we could not 
confiscate the liquor, as we could not prove that it was 
brought up to sell to the Indians, against his positive 
assertion that it was brought here to sell to the miners." 

Pete, therefore, started away with his twenty-three 
casks of liquor. But it did him no good. He had to 
"pack" it, at great exj)ense, over the Divide, into the In- 
terior. "When he arrived at his destination, he applied to 
the Gold-Commissioner for a license. He, however, re- 
fused to grant him one, as he had heard that he had been 
convicted before Mr. Duncan. 

" Mr. Duncan trumped up a case against me." 

"I know Duncan, sir. He is an honest and conscien- 
tious man, who trumps up no case against any man. You 
can get no license here." 

As he could not even get a permit to sell the liquor to 
some one else, he was obliged to " pack " it back again. 
As the liquor had not been paid for, this transaction 
ruined him. Shortly afterwards, he committed suicide. 

The way of the transgressor is hard ! 



But it was when he tackled the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany, for selling liquor to the Indians, that Mr. Duncan 
truly showed his grit. 

No other man in the Northwestern Province would 
have dared do it. 



FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 213 

To accuse this ''honourable" company, and its 
"honourable" directors, the very power behind the 
throne in the Province, of the most heinous offence then 
known to that country ! 

But they should soon find, if they did not suspect it al- 
ready, that Mr. Duncan was no respecter of persons, or 
even of the mightiest corporation in the land. 

Among other, not altogether excellent, assistants, 
which the Church Missionary Society had, from time to 
time, sent him, was an ex-prize-fighter, named Cun- 
ningham, who claimed to have been converted, but 
whose conversion was not any deeper than that he, on hia 
way up to act as a missionary, gambled away every cent 
he had. 

Mr. Duncan soon found him out, and sent him about 
his business. This was just the proper man for the Com- 
pany : he could put them right with the Indians. So 
they picked him up, and appointed him agent at Fort 
Simpson. 

It was rumoured about that liquor was being sold at 
the Fort to the Indians. One of Mr. Duncan's con- 
stables, wholly on his own account, and anxious to secure 
the moiety of the fine which the law allowed to the in- 
former, got a Fort Simpson Indian to take a marten skin, 
go into the Fort, and ask for a bottle of whiskey. 

The assistant-trader, a Norwegian, Hans Bjornson by 
name, sent him to the side door of the warehouse, where 
Cunningham came, examined his skin, and then gave a 
bottle to Hans, who, in turn, handed it to the Indian, 
who again brought it to the constable waiting outside the 
gate of the Fort. 

The evidence was not very strong. The only corrob- 
oration of the Indian who bought it being that of the 
constable that he saw him go into the Fort with the skin, 
and come out soon after, without it, and that he brought 



214 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

back a bottle, whicli he was morally sure he did not have 
before he went in. And, of course, there was the bottle. 

The evidence not being very strong, Mr. Duncan pre- 
ferred to summon Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Bjornson, 
rather than to issue a warrant for them. On the return 
day, Mr. Cunningham appeared, but not Mr. Bjornson. 

Mr. Duncan, who had been informed by the constable 
that he had not served Mr. Bjornson, because Mr. Cun- 
ningham had taken the copy of the summons for him, and 
promised he would give it to him, upon the opening of 
court, said : 

" Where is Hans Bjornson, Mr. Cunningham?" 

"I don't know." 

" Did you give him the summons you took from the 
constable!" 

''No, sir." 

"Why not, sir?" 

" He did not come back before I left." 

"Was he not in the Fort when the constable was 
there?" 

"No, sir." 

Mr. Duncan, who knew that this was false, and had 
formulated his plan, announced : 

"This case stands adjourned till to-morrow forenoon 
at eleven o'clock, at which time you will appear again, 
sir." 

Mr. Cunningham protested against this arbitrary ad- 
journment, but that was all the good it did him. 

A warrant was at once issued for Hans Bjornson, and 
the constables were ordered to proceed with all possible 
haste to serve it, and to be sure to get to the Fort before 
Mr. Cunningham, bring Mr. Bjornson along with them, 
and, under no circumstances, to allow Mr. Cunningham 
to speak to him. 

They started at once, and soon hauled in on Cunning- 



FROM JUDGE DUNCAN'S DOCKET 215 

ham, who, suspectiug something to be in the wind, had 
hurried back. Seeing their canoe hurrying by, Cunning- 
ham tried to follow it. Fortunately, a fog came in from 
the sea just then. The constables, noticing the other 
canoe following them, changed their course, and paddled 
with hard strokes out to sea. After them, as fast as he 
could go, went Cunningham. When they thought they 
had got him sufficiently out of the right course, they 
placed their paddles in the water, noiselessly and 
stealthily, but with heavy pulls, steering their canoe in 
towards the land, and reached Fort Simpson, arrested 
Hans Bjornson, and were a couple of miles on their way 
back, when they met Cunningham's canoe, which had 
lost its bearings in the dense fog. He tried to speak to 
Bjornson, but the constables knew their business, and 
flew past him, singing their canoe song so loudly that no 
one could get a word in edgewise. 

Arrived at Metlakahtla, and brought before Mr. Dun- 
can, Hans Bjornson fully and voluntarily admitted the 
transaction, and said he wanted to plead guilty, but Mr. 
Duncan put him in a cell till the next morning, when he 
was brought into court and confronted with Cunning- 
ham, who tried in vain to get into communication with 
him. 

Bjornson' s case was called first, and he pleaded guilty, 
though Cunningham tried, by gestures and grimaces, to 
have him stand trial. 

Cunningham denied everything, but was convicted, as 
Mr. Duncan considered the Indians' story at least mor- 
ally, if not legally, corroborated by the assistant's plea of 
guilty. 

As it was only one single transaction, and the maximum 
fine, five hundred dollars, had to be apportioned between 
them (at least that was the way Mr. Duncan understood 
the law), he fined Cunningham four hundred and Bjoru- 



216 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

son one hundred dollars, whicli fines, of course, had to be 
paid before they were allowed to leave the court room. 

The Company afterwards sued out a writ of error, but 
the conviction was held good, and the Hudson's Bay Com- 
pany again had to acknowledge that it had met its mas- 
ter, and its second "Waterloo in its fight with the lowly 
lay-missionary of Metlakahtla. 



XXVII 

BACK IN OLD ENGLAND 

THE following incident will show the wonderful 
influence Mr. Duncan's personality exerted, 
even over neighboui'ing Indians not belonging 
to his colony. 

Two white miners had been murdered by a party of 
Indians. A war-ship was despatched to the village to 
compel the surrender of the murderers. After a parley, 
the Indians gave up two of the three men implicated. 
According to their notion of law and justice, they had 
then done all that could be required of them. Two lives 
had been lost, and two were given up to satisfy the de- 
mands of the Whites. So, even had their village been 
bombarded, which the captain threatened to do, it is 
questionable whether they would have gone any farther. 
At least the ship left with only this partial result ac- 
complished. 

Six months later the same war- ship came to Metlakahtla. 
This time not on an errand of war, but for the purpose of 
bringing the Bishop of Columbia to the village. When 
it had signalled its arrival, by firing a gun, Mr. Duncan 
came out in a canoe, manned by ten Indians. By his 
side sat an Indian, who was not handling a paddle. It 
was the murderer, whom the heathen village had refused 
to surrender to the war-ship. He was now Mr. Duncan's 
prisoner. Some time after the war-ship had left, having 
accidentally come under the spell of his preaching, he 
went to Mr. Duncan, and said : 

217 



218 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

^'Whatever you tell me to do, I will do. If you say I 
am to go ou board the war-ship when it comes here again, 
I will go." 

Mr. Duncan told him that was the only thing for him 
to do. He allowed him to stay in the village on condi- 
tion that he would give himself up when the next war- 
ship came up the coast. 

When the gun sounded, he could easily have escaped ; 
but, true to his word, he came to Mr. Duucan and said : 

" The war-ship is here. What must I do ? " 

" You must come with me as a prisoner." 

So he did, and he was delivered to the captain to be 
takeu South to be tried for his life. 

What a shij) of war, with its belching cannon, could 
not do, the influence and power of the lowly missionary 
had accomplished. 

At his trial, it appeared that he had been compelled 
to take part in the murder through fear. That he had, 
from the first, protested against the killiug, but, as one 
of the others had killed the first man, he, driven by fear 
that his companions would turn on him, had reluctantly 
joined in the killing of the second, but had succeeded in 
saving the life of the third man. 

Under the circumstances, he was pardoned. After- 
wards he came to live at Metlakahtla, with his family, 
and became a sincere and earnest Christian. 

In 1864, the Eev. E. A. Doolan was sent out to Mr. 
Duncan, who advised him to start a mission among the 
Nass Eiver Indians, who, at an earlier day, had so thor- 
oughly succeeded in arousing his interest in them. 

After a short sojourn at Metlakahtla, he followed this 
advice, and started a mission station at Kuinwoch, on the 
Nass Eiver. He only remained three years, during which 
time he went through many trying experiences, and had 
many narrow escapes, but, in spite of the many diffi- 



i 



BACK IN OLD ENGLAND 219 

culties wliicli he had to overcome, he laid the foundation 
for a great work, which should bloom grandly after he 
left the field. 

Before being compelled to leave for England, by reason 
of a death in his family, he removed the mission station 
to Kiucolith, heretofore mentioned in these pages. This 
was done by him in conjunction with the Eev. E. Tomlin- 
son, a graduate of Dublin University, both an earnest and 
talented evangelical preacher, and a practicing physi- 
cian as well, who arrived in Metlakahtla from England 
in the year 1867. 

Given his choice as to whether he would remain at 
Metlakahtla, or take over the mission on the Nass Eiver, 
he promptly chose the latter. The fact was, that his 
mind had, while in Victoria, been thoroughly poisoned 
against Mr. Duncan by the Eev. F. Gribbel, who, with 
his wife and child, had also come out to help Mr. Duncan, 
but who found that they could not stand it more than 
seven weeks. 

I believe Mrs. Gribbel was the lady, who, when she 
was presented with a goose, had to send for one of the 
Indian women and have her teach her how to cook it. 
Of course, that did not strengthen the confidence of the 
native women in her ability to take care of the training 
school, where their daughters were, by her to be initiated 
into the mysteries of housekeeping, as practiced by the 
whites. 

Mr. Tomlinson, however, after a few months, found 
the stories which Mr. Gribbel had told him to be abso- 
lutely false, and, after overcoming his first prejudice, 
became Mr. Duncan's truest and best friend, and the 
strongest and trustiest colleague he at any time has found 
in his labours. He made a great success of the Kincolith 
mission, where he remained, a faithful servant in the 
Master's vineyard, until 1878, when he thought he saw a 



220 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

more fruitful field among some of the tribes living on the 
head waters of the Skeena Eiver, whose language he had 
mastered. 

In 1865, Mr. Duncan tore down his own old log house, 
and erected, on the point where it had stood, and from 
where he had a full and unobstructed view of the two 
wings of the village, which at this point came together as 
at the apex of a triangle, the Mission House, so called, a 
truly palatial building, compared with what he had occu- 
pied up to that time. It was a two-story structure, 
64 X 32, -containing on the first floor seven large and airy 
rooms. On the second floor was, besides numerous other 
apartments, the dormitory for the girls attending the 
training school, which, in spite of many vicissitudes, 
caused by the poor female help continually sent him by 
the Society, had, most of the time, been carried on, and 
with many evidences of God's especial blessing. 

Mr. Duncan, at an early day, advised his men, who 
were inclined to turn Christians, not to marry any of the 
young women in the camp at Fort Simpson, who had 
been taken to Victoria, and there exposed to the most de- 
grading vices, but to defer taking unto themselves wives 
until the girls in his mission training school were through 
with their education. 

Most of his young men followed this advice, and to this 
day thank him for it, for by so doing they secured bright, 
well-educated. Christian wives, who knew how to make 
the home pleasant and homelike, and these very girls are 
to-day the prominent mothers and grandmothers of the 
best homes in the new village, and an ornament to its so- 
ciety, as well as to its church. 

About this time the fire brigade of the village was or- 
ganized, consisting of six companies of ten members each. 

There was now, for years, a slow but steady progress of 
the village in every particular. Of course, there were 



BACK IN OLD ENGLAND 221 

drawbacks, aud difficulties, even troubles, sometimes. 
There always are. But Mr. Duncan's words show how 
well he and his people knew how to meet them. He 
writes in 1868 : 

" The enemy is only permitted to annoy, but not to destroy, 
us, only to make us stand more to our arms, and look more im- 
ploringly and continually to heaven. Nor is he permitted to 
triumph over us." 

One joyful sign of spiritual progress was the formation of 
the young men, to the number of one hundred or more, into 
Bible classes for the study of the Word. The young women 
of the training school, at about the same time, took charge 
of similar classes among the women, young and old, and 
often did the elders of the church, and other earnest 
Christian men, go to Fort Simj)Son, and to other neigh- 
bouring tribes to bring to their heathen brethren the glad 
Gospel message, which had fired their own hearts. 

A missionary spirit was over the people, which testi- 
fied greatly to their own Christian sincerity and upright- 
ness. 

Metlakahtla was becoming what had always been Mr. 
Duncan's wish, a brilliant beacon light on the desolate 
K'orthwest coast, sending its splendid rays in all direc- 
tions, the guiding star of the heathen tribes, towards the 
only port of safety and hai)j)iness, on a rocky and danger- 
ous coast. 

But at this time Mr. Duncan had further ambitions for 
the young settlement. He writes : 

" The spirit of improvement, Avhich Christianity has engen- 
dered among these people, needs fresh material and knowledge, 
in order to develop itself. The sources of industry, at present 
in the hands of the Indians, are too limited and inadequate to 
enable them to meet their increased expenditures as a Christian 
and civilized community, which is no longer able to endure the 



222 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

rude huts, and half-nakedness of the savage. Again, numbers 
of young men are growing up in the mission, who want work, 
and work must be found for them, or mischief will follow. 
They will be drawn to the settlements of the Whites, where num- 
bers of them will be sure to become the victims of the white 
man's vices and diseases." 

He had now, at the beginning of the year 1870, been in 
the wilderness and among the savages over thirteen years. 
The call of the home land came upon him. There he felt 
he could go, and find out about and learn trades, which 
he again could introduce to and teach the Indians. 

Never had the time been so propitious for an absence, 
necessarily much longer than the few hurried trips to 
Victoria, all the outings he, so far, had consumed. 

The elders were well-schooled, and able to divide among 
them the people for smaller meetings in the houses every 
Sunday. The constables had had experience sufficient to 
teach them what was necessary and proper to do to main- 
tain order. The village council knew now what was ex- 
pected of it. There was a competent storekeeper in 
charge of the store, and a good man running the sawmill. 
He felt that they had got so far now, that with proper in- 
structions they would be able to carry on the moral and 
temporal government of the village for a year. He knew 
he could trust them, and that they would feel proud and 
anxious to show themselves worthy of the confidence he 
was about to repose in them. 

So, on the 28th day of January, 1870, he left his be- 
loved Metlakahtla for a visit to old England. 

What the departure of their beloved teacher meant to 
the natives, and how attached they were to him, were 
made fully apparent when he left. 

Though he had been to every house, and bade them all 
an individual fiirewell, when the time for his leaving 
came, they gathered in knots on the beach, for still an- 



BACK IN OLD ENGLAND 



223 



other band-sliake. Aud even after tlie last farewell, and 
the last solemn prayer, when they all knelt together on 
the sandy beach around him who had led them out into 
the light, they could not allow him to board the ship 
alone ; but followed him in their canoes until the smoke 
from the steamer disappeared in the dim distance. 

I have had access to the entry he made in his memo- 
randum book before he left, as to the different trades and 
occupations he intended to investigate and study, and try 
to take back with him the requisite knowledge of, from 
old England. 

It reads as follows : 



" Teasing 




Making soap 


Dressing deer skins 


Carding 




" brushes 


Making bricks 


Spinning 




" baskets 


" tiles 


Weaving 


.Wool 


" rope 


Gardening 


Cleaning 




" clogs 


Photography " 


Dyeing 




" staves 




Drying ^ 









Quite an ambitious undertaking, it must be admitted, 
for one man, with about six months' time to learn it all in. 

Mr. Duncan is a peculiar man, and he acted peculiarly. 
He came to Beverley on a Friday night. One would 
think that, after nearly fourteen years' absence, he would 
rush to meet mother and relatives, and friends and child- 
hood acquaintances. JSTot so he. He put up at an inn on 
the outskirts of the town, Saturday he spent wandering 
about, a great deal of the time in the cemetery. He 
wanted to observe the changes wrought, and find out who 
the silent immigrants to the resting-place for the dead 
were, alone, undisturbed by friendly greetings and joyous 
chatter. The return was to him a solemn end to a solemn 
absence. 

Sunday, he went towards the old chapel of ease, 



224 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

St. John's Church, where he had spent so many hours of 
devotion, but, as he ueared it, he saw a man he knew, 
and though the beardless youth had returned a man, with 
heavy, full, sandy whiskers, he was afraid of a recogni- 
tion, which he did not desire yet, and pretended to be 
busy wiping his face with his handkerchief, as he passed 
by on the other side of the street. 

The Methodist church was, he thought, the only safe 
place for him to worship in that day. 

Towards evening, he sought the residence of his former 
employer, Mr. Cousins, who recognized him at once. He 
kindly consented to go the next morning to i^repare Mr. 
Duncan's mother for his return. The old lady would not 
believe it, when he first suggested that her son was likely 
to return home very soon, and Mr. Cousins had to go a 
second time to assure her that she would see him that 
day, before she could make up her mind that it was so. 

"While he needed rest very much, after his assiduous 
labours, he soon started on his round of learning the 
various trades. He went to an old Irish woman, who, 
for one shilling, taught him the mysteries of the spinning- 
wheel, and then thought that a fortune had fallen to her ; 
to Manchester for the weaving, carding, etc., of wool ; to 
Yarmouth to learn rope-making, and how to construct 
rope-walks, and to other places to learn to make clogs, 
or wooden -soled shoes, and cooperage. 

And he learned all that he was to learn, and learned it 
quickly. He had extensive notes of every trade, and 
each and every particular connected with it, in his mem- 
orandum book. 

Nor did he forget photography. He brought back 
with him a photographic apparatus, plates, and chemicals. 
He was the lii-st photographer on the Northwest coast, 
and many of the illustrations given in these pages from 
old Metlakahtla are from photographic plates taken by 




METLAKAHTLA BASEBALL NLNE 




THE BRASS BAND AT METLAKAHTLA 



BACK IN OLD ENGLAND 225 

Mr. Duncan liimself, and these photographs, used by the 
engraver for illustrating this book, are now, in many 
cases, the only copies extant of his first efforts in an art 
m which, nowadays, almost every traveller considers 
himself an expert. 

I must tell how he managed to get instruments for a 
brass band : 

^ He had noticed that the natives, though having no 
instruments except a primitive drum, and the rattle 
were great singers, had fine voices, and a good ear for 
time and music. 

He, therefore, made up his mind to get instruments for 
a brass band for them. He inquired, but found the price, 
about $500, too high for him. The music dealer who 
had become interested when he heard he wanted them for 
an Indian mission band, told him of a rich silk manu- 
facturer, who, some time ago, had purchased thirty in- 
struments for a brass band, for his workmen to play on • 
but had got into some difficulty with them on account of 
an unwarranted strike, and now kept the instruments 
locked up, and perhaps would sell them at quite a dis- 
count. 

Mr. Duncan called on the manufacturer. 

''Pardon me, sir, but I heard you had a set of brass 
band instruments." 

' ' I have. What about it ? " 

" I was told you might sell them at a reasonable figure, 
and as I want to buy a set " ' 

"What do you want them for? " 

Mr. Duncan told him about his work, and his Indians, 
ihe capitalist seemed to grow interested as he proceeded : 
but when Mr. Duncan had finished, he said, gruffly : 
My instruments are not for sale, sir " 

for i^f" ^'^^^'" f"^ ^'' ^"""''^°' "I ^^g yo^r pardon 
for intruding, and taking up your time." 



226 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

'* I said they were not for sale. But that does not 
prevent my making you a present of them, does it ? You 
may take them. I hope you will have more joy from 
them thau I have had from the ungrateful men I bought 
them for." 

He now had the instruments. But the next thing was 
how to teach the Indians to play on them. 

After a short sojourn in San Francisco, where he was 
fortunate enough to secure, at a cheap rate, a set of 
looms and other machinery for a weaving plant, from a 
manufacturer who intended to put imj)roved machinery 
into his own factory, he landed in Victoria on his way 
home. He there heard of a very fine music teacher. He 
called on him and told him he wanted to learn the 
gamut of all the thirty pieces he had obtained for 
his band. The teacher opened his eyes. One man, 
thirty pieces ! 

'■'■ But I have only a very limited time." 

'' How much time have you"? " 

" I leave here in eight days for the North." 

The music teacher almost fainted away. 

But he did not know his i^upil. Mr. Duncan took 
eleven lessons, paid him $11. 00, and, when he was through, 
he had learned the gamut of them all. 

After he came home, he called some of the young men 
together, gave them the instruments, showed them how 
to use them, and told them to go out in the forest to 
practice on them. This they did, and what a noise they 
made ! 

They came back after a couple of hours, and told him 
that they knew how now. He was not so sure. He was 
not going to let them get away with the instruments any- 
how. So he made them hang them up on the wall in his 
office, and come back another day and practice some 
more. 



BACK IN OLD ENGLAND 227 

After a while, he had succeeded in teaching them to 
play, in a manner, ''God save the Queen." 

Later on, he had a German machinist, from Victoria, 
who was quite a musician, come up to Metlakahtla. He 
instructed the natives for three months. That is all the 
instruction they have had from any white people. The 
rest they have taught themselves, and with what wonder- 
ful results will be shown later on. 

He also, at this time, brought with him from Victoria 
an organ, which was placed in the church, thus relieving 
his old concertina from further service. 



XXVIII 

HOME AGAIN 

JUST a few days more than a year after leaving for 
England Mr. Duncan returned to Metlakahtla, on 
the 21st of February, 1871. 
If he had ever had any doubt of the affection with 
which the Indians clung to him, such doubt was very 
promptly dissipated by the manner in which he was re- 
ceived on his home-coming. 
I prefer to let Mr. Duncan describe it himself : 

"The news of my arrival at the mouth of the Skeena River 
had travelled to Metlakahtla, and on the following morning a 
large canoe arrived from there to fetch me home. The happy 
crew, whose hearts seemed brimful of joy at seeing me back, 
gave me a very warm welcome. I readily decided to leave 
the steamer, and to proceed at once to Metlakahtla with my 
Indian friends, who assured me that the village was in a great 
state of excitement at the prospect of my return. 

"We were favoured with a strong, fair wind, and, with two 
sails up, we dashed along merrily through a boiling sea. I 
now felt that I was indeed homeward bound. 

" My happy friends, having nothing to do but watch the 
sails, and sit still, could give free vent to their long pent-up 
feelings, and so they poured out one piece of news after an- 
other, in rapid succession, and without any regard to order, or 
the changes their reports produced upon my feelings ; thus we 
had good and bad, solemn and frivolous, news, all mixed indis- 
criminately. 

" On sighting the village, in accordance with a preconcerted 
arrangement, a flag was hoisted over our canoe, as a signal to 
the villagers that I was on board. 

"Very soon we could discern quite a number of flags flying 
over the village, and Indians hurrying towards the place of 
landing. Before we reached the beach, large crowds had as- 

228 



HOME AGAIN 229 

sembled to greet me. On my stepping out of the canoe, bang 
went a cannon, and, when fairly on my feet, bang, went an- 
other. Then, some of the principal people stepped away from 
the groups, and came forward, hats off, and saluted me warmly. 
On my advancing, the corps of constables discharged their 
muskets ; then all hats were doffed, and a general rush to seize 
my hand ensued. 

"I was now hemmed in by the crowds of solemn faces, 
many exhibiting intense emotion, and eyes glistening with 
tears of joy. In struggling my way to the Mission House, I 
had nearly overlooked the school children. The dear little ones 
had been posted in order, on one side, and were standing in 
mute expectation of a recognition. I patted a few on the head, 
and then, with my feelings almost overcome, I pressed my way 
to my house. 

" How sweet it was to find myself again in my own little 
room ; and, sweeter still, to thank God for all His preserving 
care over me. 

" As numbers of the people were pressing into, and crowd- 
ing, my house, I ordered the church bell to be rung. At once 
they hurried to the church, and, when I entered, it was filled. 
Such a sight ! After a minute's silence, we joined in thanks- 
giving to God, after which I addressed the assembly for about 
twenty minutes. This concluded, I set off, accompanied by 
several leading Christian men, to visit the sick and very aged, 
who, I was told, were anxiously begging to see me. 

" The scenes that followed were very affecting. Many as- 
sured me that they had constantly prayed to God to be spared 
to see me once again, and God had answered their prayers, and 
revived their hearts, after much weeping. On finishing my 
visits I made up doses of medicine for several of the sick, and 
then sat down for a little refreshment. 

"Again my house becoming crowded, I sat down with about 
fifty for a general talk. I gave them the special messages from 
Christian friends, which I had down in my note-book, told 
them how much we were prayed for by many Christians in 
England, and scanned over the principal events of my voyage 
and doings in England. We sat till midnight, but even then 
the village was lighted up, and the people all waiting to hear 
from the favoured fifty what I had communicated. Many did 
not go to bed at all, but sat up all night, talking over what they 
had heard. 



230 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

" Such is a brief account of my reception at Metlakahtla. I 
could but reflect how different this was to the reception I had 
among the same people in 1857. Then they were all super- 
stitiously afraid of me, and regarded with dread suspicion my 
every act. It was with feelings of fear and contempt they ap- 
proached me to hear God's Word, and, when I prayed among 
them, I prayed alone. None understood. None responded. 
Now, how things have changed ! Love has taken the place of 
fear, and light the place of darkness, and hundreds are intelU- 
gently able, and devoutly willing, to join me in prayer and 
praise to Almighty God. 

" To God be all the praise and glory ! " 

Auy amount of work was now before Mm. The 
spiritual part, of course, naturally first occupied his at- 
tention. Then there were the sick, who needed medicine 
and advice. Again, the constables urged upon him an 
examination and readjudication of the law cases, which 
the council had settled temporarily. And, strangely 
enough, there was only one of these cases in which Mr. 
Duncan found it necessary to modify their rulings and 
decisions. 

There were thirteen marriages to celebrate. And then 
the new imjDrovements were to be planned, and laid out 
and started. 

Sixty men were set to work at once. A rope-walk was 
built, also a building for the weaving enterprise, a shop 
for the clog manufacturing, a cooper's shop, and a sash 
and door shop, and soon the wheels of industry were 
humming in the little village. 

Of more especial interest to us is the weaving industry. 
The women, with their spinning-wheels, on which the 
mountain sheep's wool was spun, have been immortalized 
in the illustration from a photograph taken by Mr. Dun- 
can, on a near-by page. A number of others were en- 
gaged at the looms, fair wages were paid the workers, 
and excellent work turned out. A specialty was made of 



HOME AGAIN 231 

shawls, whicli the older women always wore outside of 
the house. I have examined some of these shawls now in 
the stock of the store at new Metlakahtla, and must 
acknowledge that the workmanship seems to me excellent. 
It is claimed that they could not wear them out. 

The ground for the magnificent new church building, 
to be erected later on, was, after a while, cleared and 
drained. Logs were cut, and rafted to the mill, for the 
heavy framework of this extensive building, and soon the 
men in the sash and door shop found themselves busy 
preparing a stock, not only for the church, but also for 
the new buildings of the village, for the people had, on 
the advice of Mr. Duncan, determined to rebuild their 
village in a more substantial manner. 

But it took time to accomplish all these improvements. 

It was not until Christmas, 1874, that the splendid new 
church, with a seating capacity of about 1,200, could be 
dedicated to the Master's use. And the year 1878 was 
well under way before Mr. Duncan could report that the 
natives, with a donation from him of $60.00 for each 
house, had replaced their old temporary dwellings with 
eighty-seven new, substantial double houses, of two storeys, 
each provided with windows, chimneys, and other civi- 
lized improvements. 

The building lots, each 60 x 120, had been laid out by 
him, and were now neatly fenced in, and contained flower 
and berry gardens in the front, and vegetable gardens 
in the rear. In short, the little village commenced to 
assume the substantial and cosy appearance of a New 
England town. 

The church, at a cost of over $12,000, was erected 
wholly by voluntary contributions, partly from the na- 
tives themselves, and partly from personal friends and 
admirers of Mr. Duncan. 

The balance was provided from the profits of the trad- 



232 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

ing euterprises of the village. Not one dollar of its cost 
was coutributed from the funds of the Church Missionary 
Society.' 

Some time later was completed the building of the 
two-storey schoolhouse, containing a large auditorium, 
with a seating capacity of about 800. At times, when a 
large number of the people were away on fishing expedi- 
tious, this room was used for church purposes. 

That he had not one moment's rest all day, and many 
a time, if not all the time, had to encroach upon the 
hours of the night, in order to get his work out of the 
way, will be apparent when we for a moment consider 
his varied occupations and duties : Preacher, pastor, 
schoolmaster, doctor, magistrate, chief of police, mayor, 
manager of a store, a sawmill, and of half a dozen other 
manufacturing establishments, church builder and archi- 
tect, bookkeeper, gardener, and adviser and arbiter of 
every little trouble and dispute arising between 900 to 
1,000 people, only one degree removed from savagery. 
Indeed, sufScient was all this to turn half a dozen heads, 
if they did not sit as squarely on a pair of Yorkshire 
shoulders, as Mr, Duncan's did. 

It was not until November, 1873, that Mr. Duncan, 
after his first removal to Metlakahtla, had any assistance 
in any part of his work worthy of the name. At this 
time, Mr. W. H. Collisou came from England as a school- 
master. He was accompanied by his worthy wife, and 

* In 1885, Mr, Duncan showed that, iip to that time, the total 
amount received by him, in the way of donations from friends, was 
less than $(5,000, The total sum expended by him, up to the same 
time, for the erection of the splendid church edifice, establishing in- 
dustries, plants and buildings, village improvements (roads, wharves, 
etc), and in aid given to the natives in building their new dwellings, 
•was nearly |;55,000 — a most marvellous result of a rare business capac- 
ity in a preacher. 




H 
X 
< 

O 

H 
< 



a 

H 

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z; 

D 



HOME AGAIN 233 

they entered upon the discharge of their new and diffi- 
cult duties with great ardour and zeal. 

The girls' school, under Mrs. Collison's management, 
especially attained new life, and the fruits of this part of 
the work became promptly apparent. 

They continued as Mr. Duncan's trusted assistants at 
Metlakahtla, to a great extent relieving him of his duties 
as schoolmaster, at least, until the year 1876, when they 
were, in their turn, relieved by Mr. and Mrs. H. Schutt, 
who had been sent out in order to allow the Coilisons to 
take up missionary work among the Haidas at Massett, 
on Graham Island, the largest of the group of the Queen 
Charlotte Islands, where they were permitted to see very 
gratifying fruits of a work extending over the greater 
part of three years. 

Mr. and Mrs. Schutt continued their work at Metla- 
kahtla for several years. Mrs. Schutt was a conscien- 
tious and painstaking woman, for whom Mr. Duncan has 
nothing but praise. Her husband does not, however, 
seem to have been of any particular benefit. 

The picture of the beautiful Christian tone which the 
life of the natives attained under the spiritual adminis- 
tration of Mr. Duncan would not be complete without 
giving a little pen sketch from the hand of the Venerable 
Archdeacon Woods from Victoria, who, in the year 1871, 
visited the Christian settlements of Metlakahtla and Kin- 
eolith. He describes what took place on his trip up to 
Kass River, whither he went in a canoe manned by Metla- 
kahtla Indians : 

"Having paddled from daylight till dusk, with a brief rest 
of about half an hour, we reached the only available camping- 
ground on the coast, where we rested for the night under such 
shelter as the canoe sail, stretched across the mast, could 
afford. And, having lighted a fire, I prepared supper. Mr 
Duncan had provided me with food ready cooked, so my sup- 



234 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

per was soon made, and I laid down to rest, wearied with 
sitting all day in the canoe. The Indians cooked their venison 
and salmon, Indian fashion, and then, all reverently taking off 
their caps, one said grace, with every appearance of devotion. 
"After supper, I was amused at the evident fun that was 
going on amongst them, for, though I could not understand 
their language, a laugh is understood all over the world. . . . 
By and by, as I was dropping asleep, I was aroused by their 
sudden stillness. My first impression was that they were get- 
ting wearied, but it was not so. They were only calming 
down before retiring for rest, and soon I observed them all, 
with their heads uncovered and reverently bowed, kneel around 
the camp-fire, while one said prayers for all, and as the Lord's 
Prayer (for I could recognize it in the strange language in 
which it was clothed) ascended from beneath the shades of the 
forest, from lips which only lately had acquired the right to 
say ' Our Father,' ... I could not fail to realize how 
grandly Catholic is that prayer, which He Himself gave to 
those to whom alone He gives the right to use it. ' ' 

It is only natural that Mr. Duncan, in his work, should 
come into serious contact with the heathen Indians sur- 
rounding Metlakahtla on the question of slavery, which 
we have seen was practiced to a great extent among the 
Indians of the coast. 

It goes without saying, that no slaves were allowed to 
be kept in bondage at Metlakahtla. The Christ had, of 
course, made them all free. But this was not sufScient 
for Mr. Duncan or his Christian natives. They consid- 
ered it their Christian duty to help to free from bondage 
any slaves belonging to neighbouring Indians, whom they 
could reach. For the purpose of purchasing slaves their 
freedom, the sum of $5,000 was, from time to time, set 
aside from the profits of the trading establishments, and 
the greater portion of it used. 

Whenever any slaves reached Metlakahtla, it meant 
freedom forever. No cruel master was allowed to reclaim 
them from that city of Christian freedom. 



HOME AGAIN 235 

To what extent Metlakahtla became to these poor 
slaves, all over Alaska and British Columbia, a city of 
refuge, will be apparent from the following, penned by 
Mr. Duncan in the year 1876 : 

" A poor slave woman, still young in years, who had been 
stolen away when a child, and carried to distant tribes in 
Alaska Territory, where she had suffered many cruelties, fled 
from her oppressors last summer, and, though ill at the time, 
took to the sea in a canoe all alone, and determined to reach 
Metlakahtla, or perish in the attempt. 

" On her way (she had upwards of one hundred and fifty 
miles to travel) she was seen and taken by a party of Fort 
Simpson Indians, who would no doubt have been glad to hand 
her back to her pursuers for gain, but, on hearing of her case, 
I demanded her freedom, and, finally, she was received into a 
Christian family here and tenderly cared for. Both the man 
and his wife, who received her into their home, had themselves 
been slaves years ago. They understood her language, sympa- 
thized deeply with her, and laboured hard to impart to her 
the knowledge of the Saviour of sinners. 

"After three months, her cruel master, with his party, came 
here to recapture her, but they had to return home unsuccess- 
ful. In three months more, her strength succumbed to the 
disease which had been brought on her by cruelty and hard- 
ship. She was a great sufferer during the last few weeks of 
her life, but she died expressing her faith in the Saviour, and 
rejoicing that she had been led here to end her days." 



XXIX 

NOTABLE VISITORS 

IN 1875, Mr. Duncan found it necessary, in order to 
protect the Indians of British Columbia generally 
from the attacks on their ancient rights by the 
white land-grabbers, to take a trip to Ottawa, Canada, 
where he laid before the Dominion government the out- 
rageous legislation adopted by British Columbia, and log- 
rolled through its legislature, by the land-grabber lobby, 
by which it was intended to allow the Indians only ten 
acres of forest and rock for each family, in lieu of their 
old ancestral rights and privileges, of which they were 
now by law to be deprived. 

He insisted that it was the duty of the Dominion 
Government to protect the Indians from this onslaught 
on their rights, and succeeded in persuading the govern- 
ment that failure so to do might, and likely would, result 
in an Indian uprising, the consequences whereof could 
only be contemplated with horror, fear, and trembling. 

This attack of the white land-grabbers was, thanks to 
his efforts, thus frustrated. But they should again be 
heard from. They always are. 

His visit drew the attention of the officers of the 
Dominion government upon Metlakahtla, and the great 
work which the little, talented and resourceful Yorkshire 
missionary had accomplished. It was undoubtedly the 
main cause of the visit of Lord Dufferin, the then 
Governor- General of the Dominion, to Metlakahtla, on 
the 30th of August, 1876. 

He came in a war-ship, accompanied by Lady Dufferin 

236 



I 




ADMIRAL J. C. PREVOST 



NOTABLE VISITORS 237 

and his suite, and received a truly royal welcome, though 
his coming was wholly unexpected and unheralded, and, 
therefore, the greater portion of the villagers were denied 
the privilege of meeting him, as they, at the time, were 
away putting in their winter supply of salmon. 

An address, very likely prepared by Mr. Duncan, was 
read and presented by David Least, one of Mr. Duncan's 
aptest and brightest scholars, on behalf of the native 
council, and the Governor-General, who, with his lady, 
was most agreeably surprised at what they saw, accepted 
the address in a fine speech, in which he i)ledged the 
Indians the protection of the government and its most 
gracious queen, and paid the highest encomium on the 
work which Mr. Duncan had done among, and for, 
them. 

Interesting as this visit proved to the mission and the 
Indians, a greater treat still was in store for them. 

Captain (then Admiral) Prevost, who had been, under 
God, the means of starting this wonderful work among 
the Indians, on the 18th day of June, 1878, paid 
Metlakahtla a long promised visit, for he had promised 
Mr. Duncan and the Society that he, while stationed on 
the coast, would make frequent visits to Mr. Duncan at 
his mission station. But in the busy whirl of the life of 
the squadron he had forgotten it, or been prevented from 
keeping his promise. 

During the dark days through which Mr. Duncan had 
striven, in the desperate struggles to which he at first 
was exposed, there is no telling what help a visit from 
the Christian captain, sailing his man-of-war, would 
have proven to the young missionary. But, during 
these dreary years, when he was peering through the fog 
for the Union Jack, and the standard of the captain, he 
looked in vain for a help that, after all, would have been 
only of the earth, earthly. Perhaps it was better so. 



238 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Maybe it turned his heart, and his thoughts, with greater 
fervour to the Helper who could do greater wonders, and 
who had stood by him in so many an hour of need. 

One thing is certain : If the feeling, that this visit, 
which had been promised to be made in times when he 
needed it so sorely, had been deferred to a time when he 
was on top, when his sailing was plain, and the cause of 
Christ was, and had for years been, triumphant, in any 
manner embittered Mr. Duncan's thoughts, he did not in 
the least let it interfere with the hearty welcome ex- 
tended to the visiting admiral, whom he cordially intro- 
duced to his people as the father of their mission. 

The sight which met their visitor must have sufficed to 
dim the bravest eye, must have filled the most callous 
heart with gratitude to God for having been allowed, 
even in the smallest measure, to share in the responsi- 
bility for such glorious results. 

I will let the admiral himself describe what he saw and 
felt the Sunday he spent in Metlakahtla : 

" To me, all days at Metlakahtla are solemnly sacred, but 
Sunday, of all others, especially so. Canoes are all drawn up 
on the beach above high water-mark. Not a sound is heard. 
The church bell rings, and the whole population pour out from 
their houses — men, women, and children — to worship God in 
His own house, built by their own hands. As it has been re- 
marked, ' No need to lock doors, for no one is there to enter 
the empty houses.' Such is the deep attention of many 
present, that, having once known their former lives, I know 
that the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy 
Ghost can alone have produced so marvellous a change. 

" First, there was a very old woman, staff in hand, stepping 
with such solemn earnestness ; after her came one who had 
been a very notorious gambler ; though now almost crippled 
with disease, yet he seemed to forget infirmity, and literally to 
be leaping along. Next followed a dissipated youth, now re- 
claimed ; and after him a chief, who had dared, a few years 
ago, to proudly lift his hand to stop the work of God, and now, 



NOTABLE VISITORS 239 

with humble mien, wending his way to worship. Then came 
a once still more haughty man of rank ; and after him a mother 
carrying her infant child, and a father leading his infant son. 
A grandmother, with more than a mother's care, watching the 
steps of her little grandson. Then followed a widow, then a 
young woman, who had been snatched from the jaws of infamy ; 
then a once notorious chief; and the last I reflected upon was 
a man walking with solemn gait, yet with hope fixed in his 
look. When a heathen he was a murderer : he had murdered 
his own wife and burnt her to ashes. What are all these now, 
I thought, and the crowds that accompany them? Whither 
are they going ? And what to do ? Blessed sight for angels ! 
Oh, the preciousness of a Saviour's blood ! If there is a joy in 
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, with what delight must 
angels gaze on such a sight as this ! I felt such a glow of grati- 
tude to God come over me that my heart was stirred within 
me, for who could have joined such a congregation as this in 
worship and have been cold, and who could have preached the 
Gospel to such a people and not have felt that he was standing 
where God was working ? " 



Before leaving Metlakahtla, Admiral Prevost made the 
village a present of a set of street lamps, a gift whieli was 
greatly appreciated, both by Mr. Duncan and the vil- 
lagers — another symbol of the light which Metlakahtla 
was spreading through the darkness surrounding it. 

Before these street lamps were installed, Mr. Duncan 
had contrived a very original way of lighting the streets, 
and the church as well. 

He caused each Indian to erect a post, with a cross- 
beam, outside of his house, from which was suspended an 
oil lamp, fed by oolakan oil. "When the time came for 
divine service on winter evenings every householder de- 
tached the lamp from the beam, and used it for lighting 
the way of the family to the church. Arrived at church, 
the lamps were placed on the organ, on the pulpit, and 
on tables so as to light up the church. As all the people 
were at church, there was, of course, no need of street 



240 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

lamps during that hour. Upon returning from church, 
the lamps again did service in lighting the streets and 
the entrance to the houses. 

Another very interesting visit to Metlakahtla must be 
recorded. That of the late Eight Eevereud William G. 
Bompas, the venerable and beloved missionary bishop of 
Athabaska, who arrived in November, 1877, and re- 
mained for nearly five months. 

But, before giving the details of that visit, it is neces- 
sary to retrospect a little. 

Mr. Duncan, though himself a member of the Anglican 
Church, had always considered that his mission was to 
make Christians out of the Indians, not merely Episco- 
palians. 

These, his views, had been cordially shared by the 
Church Missionary Society, as long as the venerable and 
evangelical Eev. Henry Venn was its General Secretary 
and virtual head. He fully approved of Mr. Duncan's 
work, as well as of his methods. In the Society's pub- 
lished reports of the Metlakahtla mission, Mr. Duncan's 
praises were for years sung without stint. When he 
practically failed to use among his people the ritual of the 
church, and abstained, for weighty reasons, from ad- 
mitting them to the Lord's Supper, no word of criticism 
was heard. 

But, upon the death of Mr. Venn, a more churchly 
spirit began to dominate the Society, and it, for the first 
time, even suggested that the mission should be turned 
into an Episcopal church, with the full administration of 
the sacraments of the church. 

Already, as far back as 1867, Bishop Hills had urged 
upon Mr. Duncan to take orders. But he definitely de- 
clined to do so. 

The argument which he advanced was that when the 
Jews were delivered out of Egypt, and were to be brought 



d 



NOTABLE VISITORS 241 

to the promised land, it was Moses, who was uo ordained 
priest, who was their deliverer, not the priest Aaron. 

"I prefer, in an humble way," he said, "to be the 
Moses of these x^oor people, rather than an Aaron. God 
has granted His blessing to my humble work, when I 
went among them only as a lay missionary, x^reachiug 
Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and nothing else. I am 
not so sure that He would grant me the same blessing 
were I to appear in any other capacity." 

Again he said to the bishop ; 

" Ought I to be ordained, when I really look upon the 
priestly orders, as far as they apply to me at least, as 
Saul's armour was to David, — no protection, but really 
a hindrance and an incumbrance ? I prefer to stick to 
the sling and the stone. That has done good work so 
far. Let it continue." 

Mr. Duncan undoubtedly believed that the true reason 
for the bishop's urging him to become ordained was that 
he desired the mission to become a full-fledged Episcopal 
church, of the regular connection, and the Indians to be- 
come Episcopalians, which Mr. Duncan honestly believed 
was not the best for their Christian life and growth. 

But it must be admitted that in this it is at least possi- 
ble that Mr. Duncan is mistaken, inasmuch as consider- 
able inconvenience and extra labour, devolving upon the 
clergy of the Columbian diocese, would necessarily be 
obviated by having an ordained priest in charge of the 
work at Metlakahtla, who could lawfully administer 
the sacraments, or, in any event, the ordinance of 
baptism. 

On the other hand, it is barely possible that Mr. Dun- 
can's strong prejudice against ritualism, vestments, 
altars, and all the parax)hernalia of the churchly church, 
made in his mind more pernicious by the importance 
placed upon them by the High Church element, had con- 



242 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

siderable to do with his refusal to entertain the bishop's 
proposition to ordain him a priest. 

It is a fact worthy of notice, in this connection, that 
his only really true and faithful friend and colleague in 
the missionary work on the coast, Mr. Tomliusou, though 
ordained a deacon when he first came out, has ever since 
adopted the same policy, and declined to receive full 
priestly orders. 

When it was ascertained by the Society that there was 
no prospect of Mr. Duncan receiving orders, its officers 
bent their every energy to secure the services of an or- 
dained priest, who could come out, and be the pastor of 
the church at Metlakahtla, whether with a view of thereby 
superseding Mr. Duncan, or not, is not perfectly clear to 
my mind. 

I would rather be inclined to think, however, that 
there was no such intention, at this time, both because 
the Society could not possibly close its eyes to the wonder- 
ful work which he had done, and also because I know it 
to be a fact that it was held out to Mr, Duncan, presu- 
mably with the full knowledge of the Society, that, when 
he first was ordained, the next step would be to have him 
consecrated bishop of a missionary diocese on the North- 
west coast. 

Had Mr. Duncan aspired to power and authority, the 
way was here opened for him to the fullest extent. 

But he spurned the tempter and the temptation, and 
went about his old, simj)le, unpretentious ways, working 
day and night for the full redemption, spiritual and tem- 
poral, of his beloved Metlakahtla Indians. 

A report reached Victoria, in the spring of 1877, that 
the Fort Rupert Indians had carried away as a slave an 
Indian woman from the Nauaimo reservation. The 
Vancouver Island government despatched the war-ship 
Plumper to the Indian village. The captain sent word to 



NOTABLE VISITORS 243 

the Indians that, unless they brought the Indian woman 
on board within forty-eight hours, he would destroy 
their village. He did not desire to kill them, and they 
could, therefore, leave ; but the village must be bombarded, 
unless his request was complied with. 

The Indians, as was generally their custom, waited up 
to within half an hour of the time-limit fixed by the cap- 
tain. Then they sent word to him that they wanted to 
see him on shore. When the captain came to meet them, 
they had gathered some little distance from the beach. 
One muscular, strong Indian approached, dancing to the 
beach, swinging a big knife violently above his head. 
When he had come directly in front of the captain, but 
some little distance back from the beach, where the lat- 
ter stood near his boat, he came to a stop, and with a 
violent swing, stuck his knife deep into the sand. He 
then made a speech, wherein he said : 

"Why did the Whites let Duncan pass by these In- 
dians when he went with the letter of God up the coast ? 
Why did they not send Duncan to us, and make us good ? 
But no ! no ! To us they only send ships to kill us. 
K'ow, then, kill me at once. I am the chief of this vil- 
lage. There is the knife. Kill me, and let my people go 
in peace." 

So saying, he pointed to the knife, and bared his breast. 

The captain answered him that he had no desire to kill 
any one of them, if they delivered up the slave woman. 
This they finally did, at the last moment. 

The captain returned to his ship, and wrote his report 
to the authorities. In this report he had just suggested 
that if some Duncan could be sent to these Indians, in- 
stead of war-ships, it would be a decided improvement, 
when Mr. Duncan himself, who happened to pass by the 
place, dropped into the cabin of the Plumper. 

Informed of what had happened, and what the captain 



244 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

had just beeu writing, lie went ashore, and addressed the 
Indians, to whom he suggested that he might perhaps 
come to them himself within many moons, to tell them 
the glad message of the blessed Saviour. This gave 
great joy to the hearts of the Indians, who never could 
understand why Duncau had passed them by in the first 
place. 

At this very time, Mr. Duncan had really made up his 
mind to leave Metlakahtla, and give uj) the work there to 
a young clergyman, the Eev. A. J. Hall, whom the 
Society had prevailed upon to come out. 

He felt that the way the Society was now constituted 
there was perhaps no hope of his, in the long run, suc- 
cessfully resisting the organizing of the mission into an 
Episcoi^al church. As he did not want to be a party to 
a step, the fatal consequences of which to his devoted life- 
work he could not help but foresee, he had made up his 
mind to turn over Metlakahtla to Mr. Hall upon his ar- 
rival, and to go somewhere else to start another mission 
work in another field. 

He now looked upon this particular incident as a 
pointer from the Lord as to the field upon which he ought 
to concentrate his labours. 

When Mr. Hall arrived, on the 6th of August, 1877, 
Mr. Duncan installed him and left for Victoria, there to 
mature his plans for the future. But meantime without 
any final leave-taking with the Indians. 

He felt it was better thus. A declaration that they 
would then see him for the last time might result in their 
revolting against the Society's plans, and against the 
priest whom it had sent them. 

Mr. Duncan desired to put no hindrances in their way, 
and left them in full possession of the field, to do what 
their consciences allowed them to. 

Now, it so hapi)ened, that Mr. Hall, though in many 



NOTABLE VISITORS 245 

ways a gifted mau, and burning with an earnest zeal for 
Christian work, of which his many years of devoted 
service in the mission field of the Northwest coast bear 
evidence, was, at the time, lacking in the wisdom and ex- 
perience, which he undoubtedly later on acquired. He 
did not know the Indians as the old tried Moses, who 
had brought them out from the thraldom of heathen 
darkness, into the glorious sunshine of Christianity. He 
did not understand how they had to be taken, and just 
where the hidden shoals and rocks of their Christian life 
were situated. 

Only a few weeks after the old leader had left Metla- 
kahtla, he heard in Victoria that a rumour had come 
down by one of the steamers that angels had appeared at 
Metlakahtla. 

Upon inquiry as to what that could mean, he ascer- 
tained from a certain party at Victoria, that he had re- 
ceived a letter from the Eev. Mr. Crosby, a Methodist 
minister at Fort Simpson, wherein he thanked God for 
the good work now going on at Metlakahtla. 

Mr. Duncan knew Crosby. He was a well-meaning 
and able man, but very impulsive and emotional. A 
veritable shouter of the shouters, who had managed to 
get some of the Indians at Fort Sim j)son into what almost 
amounted to a religious frenzy. Mr. Duncan, therefore, 
thought he well knew what the nature of the work going 
on at Metlakahtla must be, when Crosby felt inclined to 
thank God for it. 

He knew in his heart that something was going wrong, 
and that the results of his life-work were in danger of being 
lost forever in the bog of religious fanaticism. 

His friends in Victoria urged him to go up at once and 
take hold of the mission again, in order to save it from 
destruction. After much urging, he went. 

He came just in time to save the situation. 



24.6 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The young priest had, in his inexperience, preached to 
the Indians on this text from Joel, the prophet : 

' ' Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your 
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see 
visions." 

In the exuberance of his youthful enthusiasm, he had 
painted to them the scene, vividly and impressionably. 
The imagery of the poetic native was appealed to. That 
was all. But it was enough. 

Inside of a day or two, some of them went out into the 
forest, and saw angels, and devils, and I don't know what 
else. 

Mr. Crosby had come from Fort Simpson and fanned 
the flame. With his own violence of speech, motions, 
gestures, and eloquence, he encouraged the crazy visions 
and the fanatic life. In short, Mr. Duncan, on his arrival, 
found things in a terrible turmoil. So far had things 
gone, that one man had even imagined he heard the 
Holy Ghost whisper to him : 

" Get up ! Go out ! Wake up the village ! Call it to 
a meeting in the church at midnight to hear the Spirit 
speak." 

He so did, and there had actually been a well-attended 
meeting, in fear and trembling, in the church at mid- 
night. 

Mr. Duncan arrived at the village on a Saturday night. 
After talking the matter over with two trusted elders of 
the church, who came to him, he took command just as 
if he had never left, and as if there was no one else in 
charge. 

He gave orders that there should be no church on the 
morrow. Then, that the men should meet him in the 
schoolhouse in the morning, and the women in the after- 
noon. 

When the morning came, all the men were on hand. 



NOTABLE VISITORS 247 

He gave them a good talking to, and told them that he 
had found out about the immorality that had been prac- 
ticed — called it plainly the devil's work among them, 
and finally announced that there would be service in the 
church in the evening, and that all could come who were 
sorry for what had haj)pened. But that he did not want 
any one there who had encouraged this crazy, fanatical 
deviltry. 

When they went out, he noticed some of them looking 
very glum, and made up his mind that they were the 
ringleaders. 

One of the elders at noon came in a great huff, and told 
him that one of the former chiefs had sent word around 
to the women not to go to the meeting in the afternoon. 

'' What shall we do ? " he asked. 

"Do nothing. They will come anyhow." 

So they did. They were all there. It was plain to see 
that they had taken no part in the excesses, except so far 
as a few had been, in good faith, duped. 

When he had finished his speech, one of them rose and 
said it was simply awful what had been going on, but that 
they were glad he was back. Everything would now be 
all right. 

At the evening service the church was filled ; but the 
men who had looked so glum were not there. He knew 
now positively that he had spotted the ringleaders. 

The next morning he called them to the office, and told 
them that they were the ones to blame — that they had 
been doing the devil's work, and ought to be ashamed of 
themselves. That they were puffed up, and loved noto- 
riety. That was the secret. They knew well that they 
had been lying, but loved to fool the people, as the old 
medicine-men did. 

One of them had the courage to say : 

"You are mistaken, sir. We have had revelations." 



248 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

"Revelations fiddlesticks!" came from the old leader 
in impatience. Then, turniug to the young priest, who 
was i)resent : 

" Mr. Hall, is this God's work ? " 

To his credit be it said, the young man without hesita- 
tion answered right to their faces : 

'' JSTo, sir, I am sorry to say that it is not." 

Mr. Duncan then told them not to dare to come to 
the church. They were doomed to stay away from the 
service of God's people. He wanted nothing more to do 
with them till they came back, like the prodigal son, 
repentant for their sins, and ready to acknowledge that 
they had simply been the devil's tools. 

Shamefaced, they sneaked out of the office, one by 
one. 

A short time after this occurrence. Bishop Bompas 
arrived. He had been requested by Bishop Hills to visit 
Metlakahtla, as the latter did not desire to become recon- 
ciled to Dean Cridge, as the Indians had suggested, and 
did not want to irritate them by visiting them without 
complying with their request. 

"When this trouble was laid before Bishop Bompas, he 
decided that Metlakahtla was no place for a "novice," 
even if he was clothed in the full vestments of the priest, 
and advised that Mr. Duncan take up the work again, as 
before. 

Mr. Duncan now suggested to Mr. Hall that he go to 
Fort Kupert, among the heathen there, travel around 
and preach the Gospel among them, till some one ac- 
cepted the Word, and then move them away and start a 
new Metlakahtla. 

The young priest, with true Christian meekness, ac- 
cepted the advice, and threw himself with great ardour 
into the work. Tlie Church Missionary Society approved 
of this course. But when Bishop Eidley, of whom more 



NOTABLE VISITORS 249 

anon, arrived on the scene, he located Mr. Hall at Alert 
Bay, where some white people who had started a cannery 
had promised to help the mission along. This promise 
they kept by ringing the cannery bell for work Sundays, 
when Mr. Hall rang his church bell for services. 

Bishop Bompas, who had been relied upon by the 
Society and Bishop Hills, to revolutionize things at Met- 
lakahtla, by turning the mission into an Episcopal church, 
and by introducing the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
there, after investigating matters thoroughly, decided 
that, under existing conditions, it was not the best thing 
to do. 

The old evangelical divine, a genuine disciple of his 
great Master, though he had been induced to don a 
bishop's robes, could not be made to play church politics 
at the risk of destroying and undermining the wonderful 
Christian work he found in full blossom at the beautiful 
inlet of the North Pacific. And, after having confirmed 
124 of the natives, baptized many, and ordained Mr. Col- 
lison a priest, he departed, leaving with the wonderful 
lay missionary and his Christian community the blessing 
of a true Christian. 

Metlakahtla he left as he found it, a second edition of 
the beautiful Garden of Eden, but with no serpent in it. 
The time was to come, however, when the serpent should 
appear, to blast its happiness and beauty with his fetid 
breath. 



I 



XXX 

TROUBLES BREWING 

WHILE Bishop Hills of Columbia, in 1879, was 
iu England, his diocese was divided into three. 
Out of it was carved, among others, the mis- 
sionary diocese of Caledonia, which consisted of the mis- 
sion fields in the northern portion of British Columbia, iu 
which there were then, all told, three clergymen, and one 
lay preacher, Mr. Duncan. 

In return for the doubtful privilege of nominating the 
incumbent, the Church Missionary Society undertook to 
pay the salary of the bishop of this new diocese. The 
Eev. William Eidley, who had been a missionary in India 
for a couple of years, but had returned on account of fail- 
ing health, and obtained a living in England, was conse- 
crated bishop of this diocese on July 25, 1879, desig- 
nated Metlakahtla as the episcopal seat of his See, and 
arrived in the little Indian village on the first day of 
November, 1879. 

That day was a black letter day for the village and for 
the mission which had so successfully been carried on 
within its gates. 

At first the bishop was all smiles and pleasantry. He 
had nothing but kind words for the place, the work, the 
Christian Indians, and their wonderful teacher. 

In his first speech to the Indians he assured them that 
he had not come to interfere with Mr. Duncan ; but would 
willingly work with him. This, of course, wasjustasit 
ought to be, considering the wonderful monument to 

250 



TEOUBLES BREWING 251 

Christianity and civilization this lone man had there 
reared. 

But it was not long before the true nature of the hier- 
arch asserted itself. 

Knowing Mr. Duncan's antipathy to all sorts of clerical 
show and vestments, he made it, nevertheless, a point to 
appear arrayed in his full episcopal regalia, when in 
church on Sundays, where he had nothing to do but to 
sit in a pew, like any other attendant, as he could neither 
preach nor pray, so that the natives could appreciate his 
efforts. 

His claim to the title and address of " My Lord " was, 
of course, just as offensive to the simple and lowly 
layman. 

Then he commenced to mildly suggest some improve- 
ment in the service — a little more of the ritual. And he 
had not been there many months before Mr. Duncan re- 
ceived very broad hints that it was essentially wrong to 
deprive these poor Christians of the great advantages of 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. 

As he had argued to the Society, so he now told the 
bishop the reasons why he had hitherto, with the full 
approval of the leading members of his church, abstained 
from admitting them to the sacrament. 

Whether we agree with him or not in his reasons, it 
must certainly be admitted that he knew the Indians bet- 
ter than both Society and bishop possibly could, and that, 
for this reason, if for no other, his opposition to such an 
important innovation in their worship could not, in all 
fairness, be easily brushed aside. 

His reasons were as follows : 

1. Not so long ago these Indians had at least assumed 
ti^e appearance of cannibals. They had been taught this 
practice to be a most atrocious and heinous sin. Now, 
when told that they were to partake of the body and blood 



252 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

of the blessed Saviour, how could they, with their limited 
reasoning capacity, be expected to distinguish between 
the two acts ? Would it not, at least, be liable to bring 
back to their minds the terrible custom, and give the 
scoffers among them an opportunity to taunt them with 
their inconsistency ? 

2. Then there was always the danger that they, in 
their ignorance, might come to look upon the sacrament 
as a charm, which would take away their sins, and be a 
passport to heaven. Their former training and ideas 
would easily foster such a belief. 

3. Again, there was this inconsistency, which would 
strongly appeal to them, and to them seem inexplicable. 
The Queen's law forbade any man to give an Indian any 
wine, and punished him for doing so. Now the church 
would give it to him, and it was not wrong. 

4. With the inordinate appetite of the Indian for all 
intoxicating liquors, there was special danger in offering 
him wine in the sacrament. Many might seek frequent 
admission to the sacrament, for the very opportunity 
which it afforded them, to a limited extent, to cater to 
this appetite. The unconverted heathen would certainly 
look upon it as a covert indulgence in what the law for- 
bade. 

5. The law treated the Indians as children. It forbade 
them drinking liquors, and punished them for doing so. 
It was never the contemplation of the Christian Church 
that any one, who had not attained further than the estate 
of children, should partake of this sacrament. Hence, 
they were not, as a matter of analogy, yet sufficiently ma- 
tured to receive it. 

The bishop also was in favour of a more liberal admiri' 
istration of the ordinance of baptism. 

Mr. Duncan had very decided views on this subject 
also. In fact, all his views were decided. That was 



TROUBLES BREWING 253 

the make-up of tlie man. It was one of the secrets of his 
success. 

He had always insisted that no adult should be bap- 
tized until after a long probation, and that no children 
should be baptized at all, unless they, first, had Christian 
parents ; secondly, that the parents in asking for their 
baptism acted upon religious grounds, and thirdly, that 
they were reasonably competent to discharge their relig- 
ious duties towards them. There was, in his opinion, 
always the danger that the half-savage mind would har- 
bour an idea that the holy ordinance, and that alone, was 
equivalent to an insurance policy of salvation. 

Others had not been so conscientious in their dealings 
with the Indians. 

Some years before, Mr. Duncan had called before him 
a half breed chief, Alfred Dudoward, from Fort Simpson. 
He had just been initiated into the mysteries of the canni- 
bal club, and Mr. Duncan notified him that if he ever re- 
peated this heathenish tomfoolery, he would send him to 
jail, as it was a crime under the law to expose one's per- 
son in a state of nudity on the beach. 

This scared him so that he, a short time after, went to 
Victoria. 

Judge of Mr. Duncan's surprise when he, some time 
later, read in a pamphlet published by a revivalist, 
named Hammond, that this same half-breed had con- 
verted "five hundred bloodthirsty savages," and that 
he had come down to Victoria for a Methodist preacher 
to come up and baptize them. 

This was really done by a preacher, named Pollard, 
who came up and baptized these Indians, men, women, 
and children, without first teaching them the word, and 
without knowing anything about these people, who were 
really still savages, and to whom he thus lightly affixed 
the label of Christianity. 



254 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The state of the Christian understanding of these people 
is characterized by the fact that some of them, right after 
their baptism, affixed a sign to the door of their houses, 
reading : 

''I am a Methodist." 

Bishop Eidley would have done well in adopting Mr. 
Duncan's caution in regard to the administration of 
this sacrament. If he had, he would not have had the 
following experience, most ludicrous, if it was not so 
closely bordering on the sacrilegious : 

One of the chief medicine-men on the Nass Eiver was 
very sick — in fact, near death. Bishop Eidley heard of 
it, went to him, and asked him if he did not desire to be 
"saved." The word he used was one which, in their 
language, is equivalent to our "healed," "made well 
again," Of course he did. " Yes — certainly ! " 

Then he must give up his rattle. 

"VYell, he thought he would be willing to do a small 
thing like that, if he could only get well. 

So he gave his rattle to the bishop, who carried it off 
as a trophy, after having baptized the old heathen. 

But the old medicine- man did not get well. In fact, 
he actually got worse. 

He called in his wise men. They told him he had 
made a mistake in giving up his rattle. That was his 
power. 

He grew worse and worse. Finally, he made up his 
mind to get that rattle back again at whatever cost. 

He found out that the bishop had sent to the creek for 
water to baptize him with. So he sent for a bowl of 
water from the creek himself, and placed it by his bed- 
side. Then he summoned the bishop. 

When the bishop arrived, he told him that he had 
fooled him. His lordship tried to argue with him ; but he 
would not listen. He only wanted his rattle back. The 



TROUBLES BREWING 255 

bishop would not give it up. But wlien th.e old Indian 
made use of threatening language, it scared him, and he 
finally ,said that, though he would not give it uj) to him, 
he might compromise by agreeing to give it back to the 
man's wife. When he had sent for it, and the old medi- 
cine-man would not let him go till he had done this, he 
handed the rattle to the man's wife. 

As he now was about to depart, the old Indian grabbed 
the bowl of water, threw it at the bishop, and said : 

'' Take your water back, too. I don't want it." 

After that he got better. 

There was no danger that anything like that ever could 
have happened to Mr. Duncan. But he was not a bishop 
— only a common layman missionary. So, of course, the 
wisdom God had given him, and his long experience 
among these people, counted for nothing against the 
notions of a " high priest of the Church." 

The bishop could, however, easily perceive that against 
a man of his firmness, he could not have his way. So he 
concluded to bide his time, and undermine him with the 
Society if he could. 

Mr. Duncan in a short time had an opportunity to find 
out the lay of the land. 

The bishop came into his room one day in a great 
stew. He had heard that the Methodists were going to 
start a mission at Hazelton, away up on the Skeena 
Eiver. The ''Church" must come in on the ground 
first and stop them. So he immediately despatched a 
young schoolmaster from Metlakahtla to the place, with a 
blackboard, in order to start a school for the natives, and 
hold the fort until a priest could arrive. 

The next move was to write Mr. Tomlinson, and order 
him to give up his mission, where he had inaugurated a 
blessed work, and go post-haste to relieve the young man 
with the blackboard. 



256 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Mr. Tomlinson did not believe in this kind of practice 
any more than Mr. Duncan did, so he refused to comply 
with the order of the bishop, went home to England, aa 
fast as steam could carry him, laid the matter before the 
Society, was sustained in his position, and returned with 
an order from headquarters reversing the bishop's dis- 
position of him. 

The next move on the bishop's part was to take Mr. 
Hall from the work he had started, at Mr. Duncan's sug- 
gestion, itinerating around Fort Eupert, and to place 
him at Alert Bay, where nothing could be accom- 
plished, because of the contaminating presence of the 
Whites. 

Mr. Duncan wrote to the Society about this change in 
the work, and the bishop was again overruled. But, dis- 
regarding the Society's orders, he continued the erection 
of mission buildings at Alert Bay, and retained Mr. Hall 
at a place, where experience, even to this day, has shown 
that no satisfactory results could be obtained.^ 

These experiences undoubtedly opened the eyes of the 
Society to the fact that the appointment of Bishop Eidley 
was not such an unmitigated success, after all, and per- 
haps was the direct cause of a new order promulgated at 
the beginning of the year 1881, to the effect that the mis- 
sionaries, clergymen and laymen, should meet annually 
at Metlakahtla, under the presidium of the bishop, for a 
conference which sliould determine as to the work at the 
different mission stations of the diocese. 

This conference met, for the first time, in July, 1881. 
The bishop, for some reason best known to himself, 

■ When I, in the summer of 1908, came down the Inside Passage in 
company with Mr. Hall, what was my surprise to find, upon our ar- 
rival at Alert Bay, where the steamer put in in order to land the 
priest, that an old time potlatch, with painted faces, Indians singing 
and dancing, was in full swing. 



TROUBLES BllEWING 257 

absented himself from these meetings, and was sulking 
in his tent until the conference had adjoui-ned, when he 
somehow managed to do some work, which I prefer not 
to characterize, but which should tell thereafter. 

It cannot sufOiciently be regretted that the Society- 
should have made such a mistake in the man appointed 
to this missionary diocese. Had a man been selected of 
the splendid and upright character, and with the loving 
and Christian disiDosition exhibited by his successor in 
the diocese, the Eight Eevereud F. Du Veruet, there is no 
question but that the glorious work at old Metlakahtla 
never would have been interfered with, and that God's 
Church would not have been scandalized, as it was in the 
years to follow. 

The membership of this first conference of the workers 
of the Northwest Coast Mission was made up of the 
clergymen Tomlinson, Collison, and Hall, Mr. Duncan, 
lay missionary, and Messrs. Schutt and Chantrel, school- 
masters. 

The conference desired to have Mr. Duncan preside 
over its deliberations. But, as he peremptorily declined, 
giving as a reason that he desired to absent himself when 
they discussed and voted upon the disposition of the 
Metlakahtla Mission, Mr. Tomlinson was elected tem- 
porary chairman, in the absence of the bishop, and Mr. 
Collison, secretary. 

After all the business relating to the various other 
stations had been disposed of, the future of Metlakahtla 
was taken up. 

Mr. Duncan reminded the conference that he was a 
layman, and of the Society's wish to have an ordained 
man in his place, and asked the conference whether it 
would not, in view of these facts, advise him to resign 
j his connection with Metlakahtla. 

He then left the room to allow the conference to fully 



258 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

discuss the matter, without beiug hampered by his pres- 
ence ; but was soon recalled, when the following resolu- 
tion, which had been adopted by the unanimous vote of 
all the members of the conference, including the Eev. Mr. 
CoUison, who at the time was stationed at Metlakahtla as 
a clergyman, and who sustained very close relations to 
the bishop, was read to him : 

"The conference, having heard Mr. Duncan's statement, and 
knowing the value of his labours and experience, not only in 
the work at Metlakahtla, but also to the Church Missionary 
Society's missions generally in the North Pacific field, unan- 
imously decline to advise Mr. Duncan to resign." 

The question of his resignation having been disposed 
of in this manner, another question naturally arose, to 
wit : how the difficulty involved in his remaining at Met- 
lakahtla could be met, when the Society was demanding 
changes there, which he could not conscientiously en- 
dorse. 

He, therefore, asked the conference if it would not ad- 
vise the Society to allow Metlakahtla to become an inde- 
pendent mission, work out its own destiny, and defray 
its own expenses, without in any sense changing in its 
sympathy with the Society's missions or missionaries in 
other places. 

The conference, after due deliberation, again in his ab- 
sence, by a majority vote, passed a resolution "advising 
the Society to constitute Metlakahtla into a lay mission, 
and to leave the work in Mr. Duncan's hands, witliout 
clerical supervision. ' ' ^ 

The minority consisted of Mr. Tomlinson, Mr. Duncan's 
special friend and ardent supporter. So that the resolu- 
tion, as passed, really was supported by the bishop's 

' Italicized by the author. 



TROUBLES BREWING 259 

friends in the conference, and opposed by Mr. Duncan's 
real supporter. 

Nevertheless, it was by Bishop Eidley afterwards char- 
acterized as '' absurd and" cowardly." 

The minutes of the resolutions adopted by the confer- 
ence were soon afterwards forwarded by the secretary, 
Mr. Collison, to the Society in England. 

Mr. Duncan and Mr. Tomliuson have always been of 
the opinion that, in some way, the wording of the last 
resolution, at the instigation of, or by Bishop Ridley him- 
self, was changed before the transmittal of the minutes to 
the Society, and, unfortunately, there seems to be no ques- 
tion about the correctness of this supposition. 

It may be surmised that the report of the doings of the 
conference was followed almost immediately by letters 
from the bishop to the Society, poisoning its mind against 
Mr. Duncan and his position at Metlakahtla. 

That, and that alone, can explain the subsequent action 
of the Society towards Mr. Duncan. 

The latter thought it only fair to wait a decent time 
before writing the Society a long letter, detailing his po- 
sition, both with reference to the question of closer church 
connection at the mission, and the administration of the 
sacraments, especially that of the Lord's Supper, giving 
his reasons for such position. 

Before the receipt, however, of this letter, the Society, 
after receiving the minutes of the conference, and the 
bishop's epistles, wrote Mr. Duncan a letter, inviting him 
to come to London to confer with them on the future status 
of the mission at Metlakahtla. 

This letter, dated September 39th, 1881,' he received while 
in Victoria, where he had gone to purchase machinery 

^ I ask the reader to note this date, as it becomes of importance as 
the story progresses. 



260 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

for a salmou cannery, wliich lie had made all arrange- 
ments for starting in Metlakahtla to time for the coming 
season. 

This was a project which he had a long time had in 
mind, as the only practical way of giving the Indians any 
proportionate benefit from the visits of the piscatorial 
hosts to their ancient salmon streams. By it he saw an 
opiDortunity to further aid the natives to an independent 
living. 

He immediately answered the letter of the committee, 
stating that, under the circumstances, it was at that par- 
ticular time impossible for him to go to England, as to do 
so would postpone for a year the instalment of this im- 
portant industry, but that if the committee, after receiv- 
ing the letter in which he had fully covered all matters 
with reference to the mission, and which had crossed on 
the way the letter just received by him, still deemed it 
desirable for him to come home for a conference, he would 
cheerfully comply with its request as soon as the present 
pressing preparations, with reference to the new cannery, 
had been got out of the way. 

As he bid his friends in Victoria an affectionate fare- 
well, and started for his little home among the Indians, 
he little suspected what surprises awaited him on his ar- 
rival at Metlakahtla. 



XXXI 

THE RUPTURE 

IT was on the 28th day of November, 1881, that he 
landed in Metlakahtla. The steamer on which he 
came brought with it a great many tons of freight 
for him, and stayed several hours in the harbour dis- 
charging its cargo. 

Hardly had Mr. Duncan turned the key in the door 
of his office before Bishop Eidley rushed in, and in an ex- 
cited tone asked him if he was going to England to meet 
the committee. 

Mr. Duncan calmly informed him that he was not, just 
at present, but that if the committee, after receiving his 
communication, sent them some time ago, were of the 
opinion that his i^resence in England was desirable, he 
would go as soon as it was possible for him to do so with- 
out interfering with his plans absolutely necessary for 
promoting the welfare of Metlakahtla. 

"There ! " said the bishop, with a malicious gleam in 
his eyes, as he thrust at Mr. Duncan, ' ' with as much self- 
satisfaction as if he had been dealing the last deadly blow 
to a mortal enemy," ' a sealed envelope, and then, as Mr. 
Duncan opened and read it : 

" I guess I am master now ! " 

" Well, bishop, have you not acted a little prematurely ? 
Have I refused to go home ? But, all the same, I thank 
you for this. It clarifies the situation considerably." 

'Tins is the language used by Mr. Duncan characterizing the bish- 
op's actions in a later letter to the committee. 

261 



262 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

This was the letter haDded to Mr. Duncan by the 
bishop : 

" Church Salisbury Square ^ 

Missionary Society. London, E. C, 

Sept. 2g, 1881. 
'' To Mr. W. Duncan. 

" Dear Brother Duncan : — The envelope containing this 
letter is placed in the hands of the Bishop of Caledonia, with a 
request that he will hand it to you only in the event of your 
refusing to come home to confer with the committee, and con- 
tinuing your opposition to the spiritual work of the mission 
being carried on in accord with the principles of the Church of 
Engla?id^a.s accepted by this Society. 

" With the deepest pain and sorrow the committee has come 
to the conclusion, that in such a contingency they have no 
course to pursue, but to take the necessary steps for dissolving 
your connection with the Society. 

" We feel that we need hardly assure you, that the committee 
have followed, with admiration and thankfulness, the history of 
the development of Metlakahtla under your hands. The devo- 
tion, resolution, and energy with which you have stuck to the 
work, and the wonderful influence you have been permitted to 
exercise over the Indian mind are by no means forgotten, and 
the memory of them must live so long as the history of the 
mission survives, whatever be its future. But the committee 
feels that they have paramount duties to fulfill, both towards 
the Native Church, built up through the agency of this Society, 
and also towards the members of the Society at home. We 
seek the extension of the kingdom of our dear Lord and Sa- 
viour, and the principles that actuate the Society are well 
known. Our allegiance to our Lord forbids us to go from 
these principles. 

"It is now our painful duty to request you to arrange, as soon 
as possible, for the handing over to the Bishop of Caledonia 
the charge of our mission. We have asked him, and have no 
doubt that he will accede to our request to act for us tem- 
porarily, and to assume the charge of the mission. 

" We cannot tell whether this decision of the committee will 
bring you home to England, but whether by letter or by verbal 

' Italicized by the author. 



THE RUPTURE 263 

communication, we shall be thankful to enter into communica- 
tion with you regarding a final grant.' 

"We cannot but repeat the expression of the deepest sorrow 
with which we have to convey to you a decision which has cost 
the committee much pain. God grant that all may be over- 
ruled for good and the advance of His kingdom, and may His 
blessing and guidance ever rest on you. We remain, dear 
Brother Duncan, 

** Yours very faithfully in the Lord, 

"Fred. E. Wigram, 
"W. Gray, 

"Secretaries." 

In this cruel, heartless, unchristian way was then to be 
rung down the curtain over one of the most wonderful 
works accomplished by one man in the world's history of 
missions. 

'' The Church," not Christ, was to rule Metlakahtla. 

When one remembers that this letter bore the same 
date as the letter received by Mr. Duncan in Victoria, 
simply inviting^ NOT summoning, him to London for con- 
ference, and that in that letter no hint even was given of 
the intention of the committee to sever the relations if he 
did not come home, one will readily admit that the course 
of double dealing and underhandedness of the Bishop of 
Caledonia had manifestly been adopted by the committee, 
if not by the Society as well. 

It was perhaps only meet that the bishop should not 
even respect the conditions imposed by the committee 
before severing, as far as in the power of the Society lay, 
Mr. Duncan's connection with his life-work at Metla- 
kahtla, which well might have deserved greater consider- 
ation and gratitude, but should deliver the letter to Mr. 

^ One cannot be surprised at the poor English of the committee at 
a moment when they dared to hold out to Mr. Duncan the promise of 
a money bribe if he would only play the traitor to hia Indians and 
give them up. 



264 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Duncan, though he, to the bishop's knowledge, never had 
refused to go home to England. 

The bishop, undoubtedly fearful of the consequences 
of this overreaching, unless he could be present in person 
and excuse it, did not choose to comply with the commit- 
tee's request to take charge of the mission, but deputized 
Mr. Collison to act as the agent of the Society, and pre- 
cipitatedly fled to England on the same steamer on which 
Mr. Duncan had arrived at Metlakahtla. 

One of the Indians, seeing him leave on the steamer the 
bishop had expected Mr. Duncan to take out of Metla- 
kahtla, cried after him, as he left the beach : 

" Haman was hanged on his own gallows, was he not ? " 

Immediately upon receiving this inconsiderate dis- 
missal from his life-work in connection with the Society, 
Mr. Duncan prepared to leave and vacate the Mission 
House. When what had transpired had spread like a 
prairie fire in the village, one of the Indian houses was 
at once set aside for him, and hundreds of loving hands 
were ready to carry his farniture and his books to the 
new quarters. There was great excitement, and the feel- 
ing at the outrageous conduct of the Society and the 
bishop ran high. But, be it said to the credit of the 
Indians, there was no breach of the peace. 

That same evening a meeting was held, at which the 
Indians unanimously passed a resolution, requesting Mr. 
Duncan to remain as their preacher and teacher. But he 
refused to give them an answer then, as they were ex- 
cited, and many of the people were away. 

The same answer he gave to another resolution of sim- 
ilar import, adopted at a second meeting held shortly af- 
terwards. 

Before deciding, he wanted to be sure that all the 
people were with him, and that their action was not taken 
in haste and excitement, which they might rue thereafter. 



THE RUPTURE 265 

The church had not been opened from the time of his 
dismissal till about Christmas time, when everybody was 
back in the village. The elders then called a meeting in 
the church for discussion on the action of the Society. 
All the natives came out — sick and well, young and old j 
even the cripples humped along as fast as they could. 

Only Mr. Duncan was absent. He did not want to in- 
fluence them by his XDresence. 

The meeting did not last long. These people in- 
tuitively felt what he had done for them, aud what he 
had been to them. They knew that they owed him all 
that they now prized — happy homes, loving families, 
peace, order, civilization, and, most of all, a sure hope 
of heaven, and they needed no long harangues in order 
to know what to do. 

A few speeches were made, short, to the point, and full 
of feeling. Every heart beat in unison. And when one 
of the elders put the question to them : * ' Will you have 
the bishop or Shimauget^ for your leader?" even the 
holy place where they were, and their great respect for it, 
could not restrain a shout of: '' Shimauget ! " which 
almost shook the solid walls. And when a show of hands 
was called for, every hand in the house was raised for 
Mr. DuDcan. Not one hand stirred for the bishop. 

Now Mr. Duncan was sent for. He came. The elders 
met him at the door, and conducted him to a seat pre- 
pared for him at the head of the centre aisle. 

One of the elders, George Usher, then approached, 
Bible in hand, and turning to the congregation, said : 

''You are now asked to confirm with your own voices, 
your action at the different meetings, and to say whether 
you wish Mr. Duncan to continue as your teacher and 

^ The chief. The name which all of them had given to Duncan for 
years. Every child in the village knew who "Shimauget" waa. 
There was only one of that name in the village. 



266 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

minister. All of you who so desire show it now to Mr. 
Duncan by holding out your hand to him." 

Every hand in the audience went out to their beloved 
teacher. 

The elder turned to Mr. Duncan, placed the Bible in 
his hand, and said : 

''In behalf of this Christian congregation, I say to 
you : Continue to be our minister, and go on teaching 
the Word of God, as you have done for the last twenty 
years." 

That is all the ordination as a minister of the Gospel 
Mr. Duncan ever had. Methinks that perhaps it may 
suffice, even if it is not strictly according to ecclesiastical 
rules. 

Mr. Duncan, at least, considers it as sacred and holy, 
as the laying on of hands would be by a bishop, who to 
such an extent forgot all mandates, not only of Christian 
priesthood, but of Christian manhood, that he did not 
hesitate to report to the Society in face of the foregoing 
facts, which constitute the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth, the following misrepresentation : 

"At one of the public meetings, Mr. Duncan put the ques- 
tion : ' Will all on the Lord's side hold up their hands'? ' All 
held up their hands. Then, he artfully said : ' All on the 
bishop's side hold up their hands.' Imagine their surprise at 
being thus ensnared ! Several afterwards told me that they 
did not know that Mr. Duncan was the Lord, or they would 
not have raised their hands." 

Mr. Duncan briefly told them that he accepted their 
call, and assured them that he would remain as their 
teacher. 

The public services were now resumed, as well as the 
educational work in the school. Public improvements 
were again started. The work went on just as if there 



THE RUPTURE 26T 

had been no rupture. And all Mr. Collison had to do, 
in order to earn his salary, as the Society's agent, was to 
hold on to the keys of the Mission House, which Mr. 
Duncan had turned over to him. 



XXXII 

THE SERPENT 

IN the meantime, there was quite a turmoil in the 
offices of the Church Missionary Society. Upon 
receipt of Mr. Duncan's long letter, he was informed 
that his explanations were satisfactory, and that he need 
not come to Eugiand. A letter was despatched post-haste 
to the bishop instructing him not to deliver ' ' the en- 
closure." But too late. The enclosure had burned the 
bishop's hands, till he had a chance to prematurely 
deliver it. And now came the news that the Indians 
were unanimously "Duncan's Indians," and not "the 
Society's." 

Not even one single solitary soul was there, to whose 
spiritual wants the bishop and priest between them could 
have an opportunity to administer. 

Things were looking desperate indeed, and Bishop 
Eidley's ears must have tingled at what he heard of dep- 
recation and disapproval of his hasty and ill-considered 
action. 

Finally, the bishop was told to hasten back to his 
distant See, and move heaven and earth to get Mr. 
Duncan to come back into the fold, with his mission aud 
Indians — to make all possible promises and amends, to 
promise to move away from Metlakahtla, if necessary. 
In short, Metlakahtla, the most precious crown jewel in 
the diadem of missionary achievements of the Church 
Missionary Society, lost by the indiscretion of the bishop, 
must now, at whatever cost, be recovered. 

2G8 



THE SERPENT 269 

The bishop came back. From Victoria be wrote Mr. 
Duncau, made him all kinds of propositions, some show- 
ing such a small, contemptible mind, that they could not 
help making a man of the sterling moral solidity of Mr. 
Duncan recoil. All in vain. Mr. Duncan's one answer 
was : 

"Too late." 

In a white community of 948 souls, for that was found 
to be the exact number of inhabitants at Metlakahtla, 
when, a few years later, a census was taken, it would not 
be expected that there could not be found some one who 
would not stand steadfast through all temptations, for 
any length of time. Some one has said about the 
Tsimsheans : ^ 

"The Indians are no better than the white men." 

It was, therefore, not strange, if the wonderful una- 
nimity should, in time, be slightly broken. There were at 
Metlakahtla some iDCople who had not lived such con- 
sistent lives as Christians should. They had been re- 
buked and reprimanded by Mr. Duncan, some of them 
publicly. 

A few of them were former chiefs, who felt slighted. 
They were not made much of, and were, in fact, kept 
down. Their ambition had been wounded by the stern 
and determined man at the head of the colony, who knew 
no other merit than Christian virtue. 

It took but little inducement, — small attentions, — once 
in a while a little stirring in the hardly-healed wound, 
which still smarted at times, to fan into flame the smould- 
ering embers of dissatisfaction in these minds. 

So, after four or five months, there was really a 

"bishop's party" at Metlakahtla, consisting of four or 

five adults, a majority of them so-called ex-chiefs, one of 

them, at least, an ex-convict and a ticket-of-leave man, 

' It was one of their own number who said it. 



270 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

whose freedom from jail Mr. Duncan held in the hollow 
of his hand. I need not say that he never exercised the 
privilege. He would not be the man he is, if he had. 

This was all the bishop wanted. He at last had ac- 
quired a " party " at Metlakahtla. 

On the very day of the rupture, he had approached 
Mr. Duncan's native teacher, David Leask, a sterling 
man and able Christian (who, till the day of his death, 
was a leader and a giant among this people), and offered 
him, as a bribe, a salary one-third larger than what he 
had, if he would forsake Mr. Duncan's leadership, and 
accept work for the Society under the bishop's orders. 
But Leask, poor as he was, spurned the tempter. 

On his return from England, the bishop was more suc- 
cessful in corrupting Mr. Duncan's white teacher, an 
Englishman, who had been paid by Mr. Duncan out of 
his own private funds since the severance from the 
Society. 

A female Indian assistant in the school did not have 
the power to resist, which David Leask had shown. 
When she also was tempted by the bishop to give up her 
school for a consideration, she deserted Mr. Duncan. 

Thus he thought to interfere with Mr. Duncan's 
school work, and for a time really partly succeeded in 
this. 

His next scheme was to cripple the resources of the 
Metlakahtlans. 

Upon his return, he let it be assiduously understood 
that Mr. Duncan, a lone, insignificant man, never could 
successfully stand out against the Society, which, he was 
very careful to impress on their minds, had an annual in- 
come of over ^' a million dollars." 

Now the Indians were to feel the truth of this : 

The main income of the Metlakahtlans, enabling them 
to run their village, their school, and their church, as 



THE SERPENT 271 

well as their other enterprises, came from the village 
store, which now had been orgaDized on a cooperative 
plan. 

What does the bishop do, but use the Society's means 
in procuring a stock of goods, placing them for sale in the 
Mission House, and selling them at cost price. 

Here again these splendid natives spurned the serpent's 
bribe. Not one of them could be induced to leave their 
own store, and buy goods at a much smaller price from 
the bishop. 

Oh, for such character among our white Christians ! 

But the bishop's scheme did partially succeed. The 
neighbouring tribes, whose trade constituted quite an 
item in the store's business, were, to some extent, tempted 
by the cunning bribe, in the nature of lower prices, and 
the village store lost quite a large proportion of its usual 
annual profits. But, thank God, the work was able to 
survive this blow also. 

As showing the bishop's haughty and arrogant disposi- 
tion, I cite the following : 

After his return, the village council passed a resolution 
stating that it did not desire him to reside in the village. 
A letter containing this resolution was handed him by a 
native. He met him, took the letter, and, without open- 
ing it, tore it into pieces, threw the fragments down, and 
trampled on them. 

When another man called with a second letter, he sum- 
moned him into the house, led the way to the fireplace, 
and threw the letter, unread, into the flames. 

How little he attempted to follow in the footsteps of the 
great Prince of Peace, whose servant he was supposed to 
be, is apparent from his own account, given in one of his 
reports. 

The medicine-men at some mission station had dis- 
turbed him by their noise. He says : 



I 



272 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

" I stepped quickly up to the chief performer, took him by 
the shoulders, and before he could recover his self-possession, 
had him at the river brink, and assured him that I would assist 
him further down next time." ^ 



I wonder how many heathen Indians Mr. Duncan would 
have succeeded in converting at an early day, if his 
method of procedure had been tainted with the bishop's 
' ' muscular Christianity. ' ' 

The next move of the bishop was to call for a war-ship 
to come up to cow the Indians into submission to ''His 
Lordship." 

The village store was built close to the Mission House. 
No part of the Society's funds had been used in its erec- 
tion. But the bishop now had commenced to set up a 
claim that all that was built and started by Mr. Duncan 
from private contributions sent him, was the Society's 
proj)erty. Mr. Duncan, in 1885, stated that all such con- 
tributions, from the very first up to that date, amounted, 
in all, not to exceed $6,000, and as against this he showed 
the cost and maintenance of the church $12,959, establish- 
ing new industries $11,426, village improvements $3,040, 
and aid furnished the villagers in building their new 
houses $7,238, or a total expenditure of $34,663. 

The Indians, after having sought legal advice as to 
their rights in the premises, concluded to move the vil- 
lage store away from the undesirable j)roximity to the 
Mission House, where the bishop resided. 

When they undertook to do this in a peaceable and 
quiet way, the bishop, who in the meantime had secured 
a magistrate's commission, got up and read the riot act 
to them, and immediately sent such an alarmiDg report 
of the occurrence to Victoria that the authorities dared 
not wait till they could get hold of one of their own war- 

^ Church Missionary Gleaner, No. 91, July, 1881, page 79. 



I 



THE SERPENT 2Y3 

ships, but prevailed upon the United States Government 
to send up the revenue cutter, Oliver Wolcott, with two 
magistrates. They at once, upon arrival, proceeded to in- 
vestigate the so-called riot ; but came to the conclusion 
that, on the Crown' s own evidence, there had been no 
riot, and, therefore, dismissed the case. 

But before the revenue cutter arrived further troubles 
had arisen : 

The riot act had been read by the bishop on the 30th 
of E'ovember, 1882. 

On the 18th of December, some one of the bishop's party 
had bought a drum from one of the Indians. As he was 
only part owner of the drum, with six or seven others, 
they objected to the sale, and wanted Mr. Duncan's help 
to get it back. Mr. Duncan wrote to Mr. Collison, who 
refused to return it, and recommended a lawsuit. This, 
of course, was a small matter, but there was at the time 
so much bad blood in the camp that it did not require 
anything very great to create a row at Metlakahtla. 

Mr. Duncan, who did not want to exercise his powers 
of a magistrate, where he feared he might be prejudiced, 
sent the boys to a justice at Fort Simpson. But he, 
afraid of the bishop and the Church, would not take up 
the case. 

Mr. Duncan and Mr. Collison then agreed to submit 
the matter to the bishop. He consented to act, but put 
the complainants off, perhaps, because they were then in 
the midst of the Christmas festivities. 

It had been agreed that in the meantime the drum 
should not be used. But when a boy, contrary to the 
terms of this agreement, appeared on the street with the 
"bone of contention," two of the part owners took the 
drum away from him. 

The bishop, who had not been in any hurry up to this 
time, now became very much aroused, and at once, on 



il 



274 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

December 26th, issued his warrant for the two malfeasors. 
When brought before him, he, without auy examination 
or hearing, on his own motion sent them to jail, there to 
remain until January 2d. His excuse was that he wanted 
to have it determined as to the ownership of the drum 
before their hearing. 

The Indians, with a keen appreciation of the rights of 
an accused person to a sx^eedy trial, at once called a meet- 
ing, without the knowledge or presence of Mr. Duncan. 
At this meeting it was voted to send a delegation to the 
bishop, and request him to give the men an immediate 
trial. 

On proceeding to the bishop's house for this purpose, 
the delegation espied him coming up the street, and con- 
cluded to wait for him. One of the delegates, an old 
man, held up his hand as the bishop was nearing, and 
said : 

''Stop, bishop." 

The bishop pushed the old man aside. But one of the 
others, a young man, named Paul Legale, the old chief's 
nephew, stepped out into the road, and said : 

"No, bishop. Don't do that. We want to talk to 
you. Why do you not try the two men, before sending 
them to jail?" 

The bishop did not answer the question, but struck the 
young man a blow. He was a strong, powerful man, and 
could have annihilated the bishop, and did, in fact, lift 
his hand, when one of the others said : 

'' No, don't strike back. Let him go." 

He followed the advice, and did not touch the bishop. 
One of the party, Robert Hewson, a humorous and gifted 
young man, now a highly respectable and influential 
citizen of NewMetlakalitla, could not hold back an odiouH 
comparison. He stepped up to the bishop, and, taking 
hold of his right hand, said : 



THE SERPENT 275 

"Bishop, this hand baptize Indian. This hand fight 
Indian." 

The bishop, in his rage, gave him a violent blow on 
the chest with such force as to throw him against 
another Indian, Jacob Bolton. That was more than 
Hewson could stand. He had a temper as well as the 
bishop, and he struck back once. At the same time, 
Jacob Bolton, whose nose was bleeding from the blow he 
had received when Hewson was pushed against him, 
started in earnest to give the bishop what he evidently 
was looking for. 

This was a signal for the whole crowd to take a hand, 
and the bishop would undoubtedly have fared very 
badly had it not been for Mr. Duncan's constables, who 
rushed in, pushed the crowd aside, and rescued the 
bishop, with the warning words to the men : 

" Christians must not fight. Better suffer wrong." 

*' But the bishop struck us first." 

" Well, let him do that ; but not we. We must show 
him that we are Christians." 

' The bishop now went to the Mission House. The 
I crowd started to the jail and released the prisoners. 

When the magistrates came up on the riot case, this 
j whole drum trouble, with all its ramifications, was 
brought before them. 

I Legale had, in vain, sought redress for the bishop's un- 

I provoked assault upon him, as Mr. Duncan felt a delicacy 

■ about taking the matter up, and the Fort Simpson 

justice, to whom he sent the young man, was on too good 

terms with the bishop to take any steps against him. 

At the hearing before the magistrates, the bishop swore 
that he was set upon by a mob of two hundred and fifty 
Indians. It was clearly proven, however, that there were 
not over twenty or twenty-five Indians present. 

He also swore that the old Indian had first struck him. 



276 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

This testimony he, however, at a subsequent hearing, 
changed to a greater consistency with the truth. 

At the hearing, the drum, the miserable cause of it all, 
was restored to its rightful owners. Eobert Hewson was 
fined ten dollars, as being guilty of a technical assault, by 
taking hold of the bishop' s hand, when making his hu- 
morous remark, and another Indian was also fined a 
similar sum. 

The prisoners and their liberators were discharged, as 
their imprisonment by the bishop was held to be illegal. 

As might be expected, nothing was done to the bishop. 
He was a little too high up for that. 

These actions on the part of the bishop so irritated the 
Indians, and created so much bad blood, that after this it 
seemed that both parties just watched for an opportunity 
for getting at the other and stirring up trouble. 

Sometimes, undoubtedly, one side was in the wrong ; 
sometimes the other — most of the time, both of them. 

Small, insignificant trifles were made use of to try to 
"down" the other side, and every six months or so the 
bishop called for another war-ship, and for commissioners 
and magistrates. 

It has been calculated that his efforts to fight Mr. Dun- 
can and the Indians of the mission have cost the Prov- 
ince of British Columbia not less than $30,000 in cold 
cash. And, in order to hold the fort, and gain twelve 
or fifteen families, which was the total result of five 
years' intrigue and most godless warfare, the Society 
was made to spend another $30,000 of "mission" 
money. 

At Metlakahtla they had long had a by-law forbidding 
the erection of any building, unless the consent of the 
council had first been obtained. One of the bishop's fol- 
lowers disregarded this by-law, and irritated the council 
by following his teacher's example, and saying publicly 



1 



THE SERPENT 277 

that he would build just whatever, and wherever he 
pleased, without asking the council. 

The Indians now made a mistake. Instead of prose- 
cuting him, they went to his place and pulled down the 
few scantlings he had erected. 

But, improper as this action was, it would hardly seem 
to warrant the bishop's calling for another war-ship on to 
these poor people. But he did. It came, and with it 
a magistrate and an Indian agent. 

That such a condition of things was not very favourable 
to the growth of the Christian life of the Indians follows 
of itself. That the people involved in this petty warfare 
and miserable intrigue, indulged in more or less on both 
sides, did not lose their religion altogether is a surprise 
to all who know anything about it, and a living proof of 
the genuineness and earnestness with which the seed had 
been planted. 

An occurrence like the one to be mentioned makes the 
heart sick : 

Before one of the numerous commissioners, sent up on 
the war-ships to investigate Metlakahtla affairs, the bishop, 
who had paraded through the streets armed with a rifle, 
so that Mr. Duncan was obliged to request him in writing 
to desist, as he could not be responsible for what might 
result from such action during the excited and troublous 
times in which they were living, testified that he had 
been fired at. It was night. The shot passed through a 
window close by him. He distinctly heard the report of 
the guu, and chased the two villains in the dark, but was 
outrun. The following morning the bullet was found in 
the room. 

All of this was sheer imagination. There had been no 

I gun fired at all. A young man of the bishop's own party 

! had, in sport, intended to toss a small pistol bullet at the 

wall of the bishop's house, for the purpose of scaring a 



278 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

youDg girl he saw at a window. Unfortunately, be missed 
his mark, and the bullet happened to fly in through the 
.window of the room in which the bishop was sitting at 
the time. That was all there was to it ! 

To put the case very mildly : What must one think of 
a man with an imagination as lively as that ? 

The fight seemed now simply to have come down to a 
question of endurance in power to invent causes for trouble 
between the bishop and the Indians. 

At one time, when there happened to be nothing else 
in the wind, the Indians took possession of the school- 
house, as a test case, as they called it, though Mr. Dun- 
can had at first been inclined to make no claim to the 
building, inasmuch as the Government had contributed 
the small sum of $200 towards its erection. 

This meant simply another war-ship. Seven men were 
tried, four of them held by the magistrates, and sent to 
Victoria to languish in jail for several months, when the 
case against them was dropped, or dismissed by the grand 
jury, which severely criticised the magistrates for allow- 
ing themselves to be made tools of by the bishop. 

The names of the men, who thus were made to suffer as 
the first Metlakahtla martyrs jailed at Victoria, are to-day 
emblazoned on the roll of honour of the Metlakahtla 
Indians, and to preserve their names in history they are 
here given : 

Cornelius Hudson, Dennis Maloue, Charles Spencer, 
and Edward K. Mather. 



XXXIII 

THE LAST BLOW 

BUT the bitterest fight was to come. The bishop 
had always claimed the ownership of the Society 
to the two acres of ground on which the mission 
buildings were erected. 

The Provincial Government of British Columbia had, 
of late, set up the claim, opposed to the general trend of 
the policy of Canada, as well as of the United States, in 
dealing with the Indian land claims, that the Indians had 
no rights in the lauds which they and their ancestors had 
been in possession of for centuries before the advent of 
the white man, and that they were wholly dependent for 
permission to occupy any lands at all upon the grace and 
bounty of the Queen. 

In order to gain the support and aid of the Provincial 
Government, in his war upon these Indians, who refused 
to submit to "His Lordship's" benign rule, the bishop 
now turned traitor to the interests of all the Indians in 
the Province, sided with the land-grabbers and the local 
government in their unjust claims, and demanded that 
the Government by virtue of its sole title and ownership 
of the pretended Indian lands, survey and set aside to the 
Missionary Society the two acres at the mission point 
above mentioned. 

This was more than the Indians could stand. Those 
who had posed as would-be shepherds and protectors, 
now ready to turn and rob them of their patrimony ! 

The war-cloud commenced to hover over the entire 
Indian horizon in British Columbia, and no one could 
tell what the end would be. 

279 



280 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

But Mr. Duncan now stepped forward. He assured 
the Indians that the Dominion Government never would 
sanction such a policy, and advised that an appeal be 
made to it. 

In obedience to this voice of peace, which never had 
been lifted against the Indians, those in the western part 
of the Province elected three delegates, two of them 
leading men of Metlakahtla, John Tait and Edward K. 
Mather, to accompany Mr. Duncan to Ottawa, in order 
to invoke the intercession of the Dominion Government, 
anent the attacks of the Province on the ancient Indian 
rights and privileges. 

So eloquently did Mr. Duncan and this delegation 
plead the cause of the Indians, that Sir John Macdonald, 
then Premier of Canada, promised, not only to prevail 
upon the Church Missionary Society to withdraw entirely 
from Metlakahtla, but also to grant the Indians of the 
Province full relief from their oppressors. 

He asked Mr. Duncan to lay before him in writing a 
plan for the relief of the Indian grievances. This he did. 
This plan involved the appointment of a local superin- 
tendent of Indian Affairs, in direct connection with the 
Dominion Government. 

Sir John heartily approved of the plan, which he ad- 
mitted furnished the key to the only practical solution of 
the difficult Indian question hitherto presented, and 
promised to carry the scheme through at the next session 
of the Dominion Parliament. 

''But," said he, "there is one difficulty. Unless we 
could secure the services of yourself as superintendent, I 
would despair of a successful issue." 

" Very well," said Mr. Duncan, " to help the Indians 
out, I will consent to act as superintendent for one year, 
on condition, however, that I receive no salary." 

''Good," answered Sir John, " that settles it. In six 



THE LAST BLOW 281 

months your proposed plan shall be the law of the 
land." 

' ' That being the case, I think it would be better for 
me not to return to Metlakahtla until your plans have 
been fully matured, since for me to go back there under 
these circumstances would only fan the flame, which I 
hope we now, with your aid, will entirely subdue. All I 
ask you, then, is to give to the Indian delegates your as- 
surance that the matter will be settled the way they have, 
through me, asked." 

This was done. 

Mr. Duncan went to England, there to await develop- 
ments, and the delegates returned home, filled with hope 
that the Queen's Government would give them their 
rights, and fulfill the solemn pledges theretofore made to 
the Indians by Lord Dufferin, the Governor-General and 
Her Majesty's representative in Canada. 

They cheerfully reported to the other Indians at home 
the fine promises of Sir John. 

Poor, deluded Indians ! They did not know that a 
politician's promises are like ropes of sand. One day 
they should find out that Sir John Macdonald was only a 
politician, and that his word of honour, though solemnly 
given, was not worth a picayune. 

In London, Mr. Duncan again had an audience with 
Sir John, in which the same promises were reiterated, 
and wherein he told him that he had written the Society, 
and had met a committee from it in London on the mat- 
ter, and had strictly adhered to his former demands, that 
they abandon Metlakahtla at once. 

Before leaving London, however. Sir John had a second 
conference with the Society, after which he entirely 
changed front, went back on all his solemn promises to 
Mr. Duncan and the Indians, and in his official report, 
soon thereafter issued, appeared in the role of a defender 



282 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

of the bishop, and of an accuser of Mr. Duncan, who now 
in his eyes had become an "intolerable dictator." 

People have been malicious enough to insinuate that, 
at this second interview, a bargain was entered into be- 
tween this Chi'istian — no, pardon me — Church Missionary- 
Society, and Sir John, by the terms of which he, in con- 
sideration of a complete surrender of the rights of the 
Indians, secured the support of the sympathizers of the 
Church of England party of Canada, in the approaching 
general election, which was to decide his fate, and that 
of his party. 

Mr. Duncan waited the stipulated six months. He 
heard nothing. When eight months had gone by, and 
no tidings, he returned by way of Ottawa, sought an in- 
terview with Sir John, but could not get it. He then 
wrote a letter to the Dex)uty Minister of Indian Affairs, 
who promised to write him an answer to Metlakahtla. 
But no answer came. He then again wrote from Metla- 
kahtla to Sir John. No answer. Not even an acknowl- 
edgment of the receipt of his letter, which the common- 
est courtesy certainly would require. 

Instead of an answer to these letters, came, in the Fall 
of 1886, a surveying party sent out by the Dominion 
Government itself to survey what it was pleased to allow 
the Indians for a reserve, though no treaty, or agreement, 
had ever been made with them for ceding the land which 
they were now called upon to surrender. 

The Indians felt that the time had now come for them 
to assert their rights, or to lie down, like cowards, and be 
robbed of all their patrimony. So they concluded to 
prevent the surveyors from going on with their work. 
Tliis they did, however, without any violence, though 
often sorely provoked by the insolence of the surveying 
party. 

They simply did it in this way : 



THE LAST BLOW 283 

"Whenever the surveyor planted his instrument, the 
Indians took it up, and laid it down. When the sur- 
veyor drove a stake, the Indians pulled it up. When 
the surveyor laid a chain, the Indians took it away. But 
they kept it up all the time. 

I can well afford to admit that this was a great mistake. 
Nothing could be gained by actions of this sort, except 
what happened after the lapse of some time, to wit : the 
arrival of another war-ship, and the deportation of seven 
of the leaders in the interference : John Tait, Edward 
K. Mather, Fred Eidley, Alfred Atkinson, Adolphus 
Calvert, Moses Baines, and James Smith, and their sub- 
sequent incarceration in jail in Victoria for from three 
to six months. 

But we should remember that it was not easy for Mr. 
Duncan to have their untutored minds grasp any too fine 
distinctions, where they felt their innate rights so shame- 
fully distorted and played with. 

The Indians, in order to get a test case in the law 
courts about the two acres claimed by the Society, about 
the same time erected a small building on a portion of 
them, and put a man in possession. 

This action finally forced the bishop to start an injunc- 
tion or mandamus proceeding in the courts in Victoria, 
to compel the tearing down of this offensive little 
building. 

Mr. Duncan, who had gone down to Victoria after the 
survey trouble, to see if nothing could be done to prevent 
the despatch of another war-ship to Metlakahtla, and in 
some way secure some amicable arrangement of the land 
trouble, was present in court, when Chief Justice Begbie 
announced his decision granting the bishop's application. 
In doing so, he not only took pains to state from the bench 
that "the Indians had no rights in the land except such 
as might be accorded to them by the bounty and charity 



284 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

of the Queen of England," but also, as it seems to me, in 
a very improper and injudicious manner, characterized 
the utterances of Lord Duffer in, wherein he pledged Her 
Majesty's Government to protect and recognize the rights 
of the Indians in and to their land, as ' ' simply blarney 
for the mob." 

Mr. Duncan, who still would be detained in Victoria 
for some time, on matters concerning Metlakahtla, wrote 
the exact language of the judge to the Eev. R. Tomliuson, 
who, in the year 1882, had resigned from the Society's 
service, and at Mr. Duncan's and the Indians' earnest 
request, a short time after his resignation had come to 
Metlakahtla with his lovable family. 

Mr. Duncan built a fine house for him, anent his com- 
ing, and ever since that time Mr. Tomlinson had been 
Mr. Duncan's faithful and indefatigable co-worker at old 
Metlakahtla, and undoubtedly a mighty comfort to him 
in the many trials and tribulations which he, dui'ing these 
years, was destined to endure. 

As soon as Mr. Duncan's letter arrived, and its con- 
tents had been communicated to the leaders, a meeting 
was called of the Indians. 

As to what there was done, we will learn later on. 

About two weeks after writing to Metlakahtla, Mr. 
Duncan, to his surprise, heard that the steamer from the 
North had brought down some of his Indians. He went 
to meet them, and found David Leask, Eobert Hewson, 
and Josiah Guthrie at tlie wharf. 

They looked solemn, mysterious and glum. 'V^^lon he 
wanted to know their errand, they refused to talk then. 
They all three threw suspicious, fearful glances at the 
people near by, indicating to him that they feared every- 
body, and trusted no one. 

Finally, upon being informed that they would not 
speak till the next day, and then only if they could meet 



THE LAST BLOW 285 

him all alone, where nobody could overhear, he made an 
appointment with them for the next forenoon at Senator 
MacDonald's beautiful home, "Armadale." 

The Government of British Columbia, at the time, 
consisted of a premier, an attorney-general, and a 
secretary. 

At ten o'clock that same evening, Mr. Duncan called 
at the house of the secretary, Mr. Robsou, the only one 
of the members of the Government who seemed to have 
any conscience about the treatment of the Indians. 

Mr. Duncan said to him, when alone with him in hia 
library : 

''A delegation of Indians has just arrived from the 
North to see me. They are reticent, and will not tell me 
their errand. I am afraid that this bodes no good. I 
come to you now, for the last time, to see if nothing can 
be done to stop this trouble. I can speak now, for I 
know nothing. To-morrow, after I have seen them, and 
know what they have concluded to do, my mouth will 
probably be sealed, so I can tell you nothing. There are 
only one of two decisions that I can imagine they could 
have come to. One is, to leave for Alaska. If it be 
that, all is good and well. If you hear, to-morrow night, 
that I have left for the States, you may know that it is 
Alaska. But, if I do not, I am afraid that it means 
fight. And if it does, may God have mercy on the 
white people of this Province. You will need to send 
five thousand men up there. And they will go there 
only to be killed too. The Indians will withdraw up 
Skeeua Eiver, and all the military you can send up there 
will be simply slaughtered in the canyons, while the 
Indians will go comparatively free. Your treasury will 
be depleted. Your population will be murdered. Your 
soldiers will be slaughtered. But if it is 'fight,' don't 
come to me any more. Don't try to get me to do any- 



286 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

thing. For I will not. I am going to leave you all to 
your fate now. I have pleaded, and preached, and 
prayed, till I am sick at heart, at the injustice you have 
showered on those poor Indians." 

''It is terrible to contemplate," said Mr. Eobson, 
**but we have deserved it. I admit it. I admit it." 



XXXIV 

THE NEW HOME 

THE next evening Mr. Eobson learned tliat Mr. 
Duncan had left for ^yasllington. The mem- 
bers of the Government slept easier that night. 
Mr. Duncan says : 

"It grieved me to hear, when I returned from Washington, 
that the Premier was dead. The magnificent house, which this 
ex-farmer was building for himself in Victoria, stood there 
half-finished, and now abandoned. The attorney-general was 
dying, and could not be seen. Since then, every one con- 
nected with this crying injustice has died. 'The vengeance 
is Mine,' saith the Lord." 

• At the meeting of the Indians at Metlakahtla, so it was 
afterwards learned, a great conflict had been raging. 
Many wanted to take up arms, and martial feeling ran 
high. It seemed to these people as if there was nothing 
to live for now. Justice had been denied them every- 
where — by ministers, and governors, and premiers, and 
now, at last, by the courts, their final hope, their last re- 
sort. The Church was harassing them, the State was in- 
carcerating them, and stealing the possessions which they 
had inherited from the fathers of their fathers. 

"We might just as well make a last stand," they said. 
"Just as well first as last. Just as well fight, and kill, 
and die, as to have these highway robbers take away 
from us the land which our fathers possessed for hun- 
dreds of years before a white man put a foot in British 
Columbia." 

The more earnest Christians pleaded for Alaska : 
287 



288 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

'' A Christian can suffer. He can die. But he cannot 
kill," they said. ' ' Let us go to the great laud of the free. 
'We are slaves here. There we can be free men. We 
love this laud. We love this beautiful place, where our 
fathers lived, and where our children were born ; but we 
love Christ more. Two wrongs cannot make one right. 
Let us go to Alaska, where we can worship God as we 
think right — where there will be no bishop to worry 
and tantalize us — where, as Mr. Duncan tells us, every 
one can have his own religion without any persecution, 
either from church or government. Let us go to a peace- 
ful life — to a life in God." 

And the Christians won the day. 

The delegation was sent down to ask Mr. Duncan to 
go to Washington, and ascertain if the Metlakahtla In- 
dians would be allowed to come to Alaska, to seek a 
refuge there from their troubles — and whether they 
would be received as citizens of the country, and be pro- 
tected in their rights. If so, they were willing to go and 
leave all. Go where they would be free to worship their 
God as their consciences dictated, without interference, 
or worry from priest, bishop, or Society. 

Mr. Duncan thought it best first to appeal to some 
Christian friends in this country, of whom he had read, 
before addressing the proper officers of the Government 
at Washington, and to ascertain from them the best 
modus operandi. 

And he did not appeal in vain to grand, warm-hearted 
men like the silver-tongued Episcopalian Bishoj) Phillips 
Brooks, in Boston, and the patriotic Henry Ward Beecher, 
in Brooklyn. Both of them opened their magnificent 
churches for him, and gave him tlieir moral sujiport in a 
unanimous request by their congregations to our Govern- 
ment, to grant these homeless Indians a refuge in our 
Alaskan Archipelago. 



THE NEW HOME 289 

Arrived at Washington, he was received by the repre- 
sentatives of our Government, President Cleveland, his 
Secretary of State, and of the Interior, and his Attorney- 
General, with friendly feelings, and assured privately 
that he and his Indians were welcome to choose them- 
selves a home in Alaska, and that, in time, undoubtedly 
some action would be taken by the Congress fully to 
secure them in their rights, if they themselves would 
select an island suitable to their purposes ; but that 
officially nothing could, at that time, be done which 
might be construed by Great Britain as an unfriendly act 
to the Canadian Government, or to the government of any 
of its provinces. 

This promise was honourably redeemed, when, in 1891, 
at the solicitation of these same government officials, as 
well as of the then Governor of Alaska, the Congress of 
the United States did, by the Act of March 30, 1891 : 
"Until otherwise provided by law, set apart the body of 
laud known as the Annette Islands, in Alexander Archi- 
pelago, in Southeastern Alaska, as a reservation for the 
use of the Metlakahtla Indians, and such other of the 
Alaska natives as may join them, to be held and used by 
them in common, under such rules and regulations, and 
subject to such restrictions, as may be prescribed from 
time to time by the Secretary of the Interior." 

Mr. Duncan never overlooks anything. He had fore- 
seen the possibility of his people being obliged to immi- 
grate to Alaska, in order to enjoy religious and civic 
liberty, and for that contingency he had already looked 
up where eligible and desirable sites for the new colony 
might be found. 

As soon as it was made apparent to him that a way 
would be opened to their immigration to Alaska, he 
wrote to Mr. Tomlinson and to Dr. J. D. Bluett-Duncan, 
a devoted Christian gentleman of means from England, 



290 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

who had, at home, read about the wonderful colony built 
up under Mr. Duncan's fostering care, and, some two or 
three years before, had come oat to see with his own eyes, 
and had remained to give the Indians, without cost or 
charge, the benefit of his professional services, and in 
other ways give to Mr. Duncan what assistance he could. 

Mr. Duncan's letter suggested that a dejiutation of In- 
dians should go at once and examine certain eligible sites 
for a new colony, which he suggested, and select the one 
that seemed to them best. 

This was done at once. Five Indians, accompanied by 
Dr. Bluett-Duncan, started on a voyage of exploration. 

Seventy miles north of the old village, on the other side 
of Dixon Entrance, they came to Port Chester, on the 
northwest side of Annette Island. The beautiful water- 
fall, giving promise of a splendid water-power, the 
sheltered bay, the fine canoe beaches, the gently rising 
stretch of land directly back of the beach, the luxurious 
growth of cedars, spruce, and hemlock, all won ujdou 
their eyes, and one of the Indians said : 

' ' It is no use to go any further. "We can certainly not 
find anything finer than this, if we go a thousand miles." 

This voiced the opinion of all. 

Thus, on the 25th day of March, 1887, one of the 
loveliest spots in Alaska was selected as the new home, 
in the country of the brave and the free, for the persecuted 
and hounded Metlakahtla Indians. 

Here, under the protection of the stars and the stripes, 
this race, which had already made such wonderful strides 
in civilization. Christian virtues, and civic progress, 
should recover from the cruel blows given it by bigotry 
and priestcraft, and its little village should blossom forth 
in peace and prosperity as the model Christian community 
of Alaska, the far-away Northland, its fame to redound 
into all lands, and among all people. 



THE NEW HOME 291 

The Indians who had the honour of selecting this new 
home of the colony, were David Leask, John Tait, 
Edward Benson, Adam Gordon, and Fred Eidley. The 
explorers at once returned to their home, and made a 
glowing report of what they had found. And the selec- 
tion was, in a short time, ratified by all. 

''Thanks be to God, peace should once more reign 
among them. Strife and vexatious irritation and con- 
tinuous brawling should cease." Happiness shone in 
every face. 

Word was sent to Mr. Duncan, notifying him of their 
selection of the new home. Soon pioneers were despatched 
to build temporary huts near the beach, while the rest of 
the villagers went on their usual summer tours to gather 
and put up the winter supply of food. 

July gone, and the canoes returning, many started 
directly for the new home, to assist in the work of erect- 
ing the temporary houses. 

On August 7, 1887, about noon, a gun announced the 
arrival of the steamer Ancon. 

It brought Mr. Duncan, who landed at once, accom- 
panied by some American gentlemen on board. 

A temporary flagstaff was rigged up, and, under the 
boom of cannon, the stars and stripes were hoisted for 
the first time on that shore. 

The Indians, with solemn mien, uncovered their heads, 
as the silken banner, a present from friends in the States, 
slowly rose above them, and unfurled to the breeze the 
most beautiful colours any nation could ever boast of. 

Speeches were made by the Hon. H. E. Dawson, United 
States Commissioner of Education, and by Mr. Duncan. 
But, more eloquent than the speeches, were the silent 
tears glistening in the eyes of the stalwart Indians, as 
they were looking admiringly up at the flag, under whose 
protecting folds the future of their little nation was to be 



292 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

lived. They spoke of the untold sufferings and sorrows 
of the past years. But they also spoke eloquently of the 
living hope of the relief the futui-e would bring ; and 
with silent praise to God for their deliverance, there arose 
to the tlu'one of the Almighty at that moment, I am told, 
from those Indian hearts, many a wish for the success of 
the great Nation, which now held its protecting banner 
above the little persecuted flock. 

Since that day there are four great holidays celebrated 
at Metlakahtla every year : Christmas Day, the birthday 
of the Christ ; New Year's Day, the birthday of the year ; 
Fourth of July, the birthday of the Nation, and the 
7tli of August, "Pioneer Day," as it is called, the birth- 
day of New Metlakahtla, for so was the new haven of rest 
christened. 

At three o'clock that day divine services were held on 
the beach, — the first conducted by Mr. Duncan in Amer- 
ican Alaska. Then, in song and praise, and prayer, in 
the soft, flowing language of the Tsimsheans, the native 
heart was lifted ui^ to and beyond the beautiful flag now 
floating above their heads, into the holy of holies of the 
glorious heavens. 

The next morning, while Mr. Duncan's effects, includ- 
ing a complete steam sawmill outfit, which he had 
bought in Portland, were unloaded and stored in the log 
house built for him, filling it to overflowing, he him- 
self was compelled to live in a tent during the first Fall 
mouths, George Usher, a prominent native, was by him 
sent back to old Metlakahtla to bring the Indians there 
news of the arrival of their leader. 

As George Usher ploughed the blue, sapphire waves of 
the North Pacific with his paddle, he composed a song or 
chant, with which to greet his people. 

When he arrived in the inlet at old Metlakahtla, he did 
not run his canoe up on the beach. Indian fashion, he 



THE NEW HOME 293 

stoi^ped a little distance from shore, where he rested on 
his paddle. 

Some one on shore espied and recognized him. Like 
lightning, the message flew through the village. The 
steamer, which was supposed to carry " the chief," had 
been seen pass by, going North, a couple of days ago. In 
the twinkling of an eye, it seemed, the beach was black 
with people, who swarmed out of houses and yards, — 
men, women and children. The whole village was there. 
Even some of the bishop's party ventured forth. 

Then came over the waves, in words of song, the glad 
message, in their own beloved tongue : 

" The great chief has come. 
He has gone to our new home. 
Now he seuds me to you. 
He bids you come, oue and all. 
We shall be slaves no longer. 
The land of freedom has accepted us. 
The flag of the ' Boston men ' is hoisted 
At the site of a new Metlakahtla. 
It will protect us and our freedom. 
We can worship God in peace. 
We can secure the happiness of our children. 
They will be the freemen of a great uatiou. 
Come, therefore, one and all. 
Gather your little ones around you. 
Push the canoes from the beach. 
Good wind will fill our sails ; 
We will hasten to the land of freedom." 

Hardly had the last note died away over the waves, 
when the scraping of the canoe-keels on the sand was 
heard. In less than an hour, ten canoes, filled with men, 
anxious to see with their own eyes their new home, were 
on the way. 

After temporary log huts were erected, the return 
voyage was made. And now, as the pilgrim fathers of 



294: THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

old, they came back with women and children, and with 
what little of their possessions they were allowed to take, 
in canoe fleets, towed across Dixon Entrance, by their 
little cannery steamer, Princess Louise, and by the 
Methodist Gospel boat. Glad Tidings, chartered for the 
occasion. 

It stands to reason that many a tear glistened in the 
Indians' black eyes, as they left their old home, where 
their fathers had lived for generations back, where their 
children had been born, where they themselves had seen 
the great light, and been received into Christ's church on 
earth, and where they left so many of their dear departed 
behind. 

But, though cruel i)ersecution asserted itself at the 
very last moment, and denied them the right to take along 
even the windows and doors of the houses they them- 
selves had built, the sawmill machinery, and the lathes 
and other machinery they had owned, the looms they had 
bought and paid for, the very organ in their church, to 
which every Indian had contributed his $2.50, or $500 
in all, the carpet, which their women had provided for 
their church, after the rupture, the prows of their canoes 
were headed North, towards the land of freedom, towards 
a haven of rest from petty spite and persecution, and the 
sobs of parting were choked down, and the brows lifted 
in hope and courage. 

In that hour, big with the future, all was soon forgot- 
ten but the glorious hope of the morrow lying ahead of 
them. 

Though deprived of all they had toiled for during a 
lifetime, though smarting under the cruel injustice, which 
had, in the name of Holy Church, taken from them what 
was theirs, and driven them from hearth and home, ap- 
propriated tlieir houses and gardens, their church and 
school, without a penny of compensation ; nevertheless, 



THE NEW HOME 295 

this liost of Cliristians went forth to a strange land, in 
their hearts of hearts glad to sacrifice what they did for 
the sake of their faith and religion, and smiling through 
their tears. 

Quite 823 of the 948 constituting the population of the 
village left that Fall for New Metlakahtla. Some who 
did not belong to the bishop's party remained, not be- 
cause they sympathized with him, but because they had 
not the moral courage to pull up stakes and start again 
in a strange land. 

The real strength of the bishop's party did not, at the 
time, muster over ninety-four, counting in his white re- 
tainers. 

He and his followers did not hesitate to reap where 
they had not sown. It is said that it was with a look of 
satisfaction the bishop contemplated his victory. That 
he actually smiled when he saw these poor natives driven 
from home and all that was theirs. Had they not dared 
to oppose " His Divine Lordship " ? 

And now, he and his adherents took possession. Theirs 
was the church, and the school, and the mission house, 
and the weavery, and the cannery, and the sawmill, the 
store, and the factories, and the buildings, and Mr. Dun- 
can's own house, paid for out of his own ''private" 
funds. All — all was theirs, with none to dispute their 
title. 

As the last fleet of canoes glided away over the placid 
waves of the inlet, carrying those who had come to fetch 
some portion of what had belonged to them, but who now 
were compelled to return with empty hands, because the 
State's aid had not in vain been invoked by the Church, 
but had stayed their hands from taking what was theirs, 
I fancy I can hear a satanic *' Ha ! Ha ! " echoing back 
from the mountain peaks, as the bishop contemplated all 
the possessions which he found on his hands. 



296 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

But what easily comes, easily goes, the proverb says. 

One day, in 1901, fire from heaven devoured all of the 
bishop's ill-gotten gains. The maguifi,cent church, the 
school, the cannery, the factory buildings, the mission 
house, practically everything that had been stolen from 
these poor people, went up in smoke, carrying with it the 
bishop's private possessions, his books, and his manu- 
scripts — in fact, all that he owned. 

Indeed, Mr. Duncan could say : 

"Vengeance is Mine, saith the Lord." 

Since that time the Society has, in 1903, built a small 
church. It has built "The Eidley Home," a boarding- 
school for half-breed Indian children, which still is in 
operation. 

Everything has been done by the Provincial Govern- 
ment to foster old Metlakahtla, and keep the dying mis- 
sion there going. A school for boys, and a school for 
girls, have been built, and operated by the aid of ludi- 
crously excessive grants from the Government,^ but it 
seems that the end of this artificial hothouse gardening 
has now come. The Government did, in 1908, withdraw 
its support, and both of the schools are now deserted. The 
furniture was sold at auction in the summer of that year. 

The new day-school building erected by the Govern- 
ment, and just finished this summer, will be wholly use- 
less,^ as there are school buildings enough and to spare 
for the present population, which, according to the figures 
furnished me by the Indian Agent, totals 187, including 
the boarders at the schools. 

■ The Government has thus paid at this place $140 per year for each 
pupil, while at Port Simpson, seventeen miles away, it at the same 
time paid the Methodists only $60. 

' The upper hall of this building is now used every Saturday night 
for a public dauce, where the while men from Prince Kupert come 
over to dauce with the Indian maidens ! 



THE NEW HOME 297 

Of the many assistants of Bishop Eidley, there now re- 
main at old Metlakahtla only the venerable missionary, 
the Eev. J. H, Keene, who, when I visited there, during 
the summer of 1908, acted as his own schoolmaster, as 
well, and Miss M. West, the principal of the "Eidley 
Home." 

Bishop Du Vernet has moved his episcopal seat to 
Prince Eupert, a new town in the making, on a neigh- 
bouring island, and the intended terminus of the Grand 
Trunk Pacific Eailway. The Metlakahtla Indians still 
remaining at old Metlakahtla had a windfall a year or so 
ago, when the railroad company paid them something in 
the neighbourhood of $50,000 to acquire their reservation 
interest in the lands on which Prince Eupert is to be 
partly located. 

This money has, by these Indians, been invested in 
modern dwelling-houses. 



XXXV 

THE PIONEERS 

AT New Metlakahtla the pioneers found work 
enough before them. The dense, primeval forest 
extended down to the beach. The giant trees, 
all the way from one to six feet in diameter, quite a dis- 
tance from the ground, had to be felled, the stumi)s re- 
moved, the land cleared, and the ground drained, before 
the permanent allotment of town lots could be made. 
They all went at it with a will. 

While there had, many years ago, been a small Thlin- 
git village at the spot, the only evidence of it now was 
an old totem-pole, which has since been removed, and 
now is found in the museum at Sitka. 

One of the first public buildings to be erected was the 
sawmill, where a plant was installed, and kept busy saw- 
ing the lumber for temporary buildings, as well as for use 
the next summer in the erection of a cannery building. 

As to i)ermauent dwellings, the edict of Mr, Duncan 
was that none should be built for the first two years. He 
was afraid that some of those who had come might desire 
to return to the fleshpots of old Metlakahtla, after a while, 
and he did not desire that they should be held back by 
having made permanent and costly improvements. 

The same spirit was over him as of old. There was to 
be no discontent. All should be foot-loose, so that they 
could pull up and go back, if their hearts were not in it. 

In spite of this, only two or three families returned. 

One of his first acts was to gather the adult men to- 
gether, and explain to them their duties to the new coun- 
try, whicli had received them so kindly. 

298 



THE PIONEERS 299 

It was a sight worth witnessing, when, in the faint 
glimmer of the oil lamps, all these swarthy men, young 
and old, at the behest of their beloved leader, who already 
held a magistrate's commission, one evening held up their 
right hands, and with a patriotic glow in their eyes 
solemnly and collectively swore allegiance to their 
adopted country. 

The proceeding was not authorized by law, but Mr. 
Duncan knew that it would, as far as the Indians were 
concerned, have just the same effect as had it been a legal 
proceeding. He wanted to bind them at once with the 
ties of allegiance to the new country. 

The next thing to do was to draft and adopt a consti- 
tution for the new community, which every resident of 
the village had to accept and sign, before he could be 
considered as having any rights there. 

The result of Mr. Duncan's labours in that direction 
was the following : 

Declaration of Residents 

" We, the people of Metlakahtla, Alaska, in order to secure 
to ourselves and our posterity the blessings of a Christian home, 
do severally subscribe to the following rules for the regulation 
of our conduct and town affairs : 

"I. To reverence the Sabbath, and to refrain from all un- 
necessary secular work on that day ; to attend divine worship ; 
to take the Bible for our rule of faith ; to regard all true Chris- 
tians as our brethren ; and to be truthful, honest, and industrious. 

"2. To be faithful and loyal to the Government and laws 
of the United States. 

" 3. To render our votes when called upon for the election 
of the Town Council, and to promptly obey the by-laws and 
orders imposed by the said Council. 

"4. To attend to the education of our children, and keep 
them at school as regularly as possible. 

"5. To totally abstain from all intoxicants and gambling, 
and never to attend heathen festivities or countenance heathen 
customs in surrounding villages. 



300 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

"6. To strictly carry out all sanitary regulations necessary 
for the health of the town. 

" 7. To identify ourselves with the progress of the settle- 
ment, and to utilize the land we hold. 

" 8. Never to alienate, give away, or sell our land, or build- 
ing-lots, or any portion thereof, to any person or persons who 
have not subscribed to these rules." 

This coDstitutiou has never been changed or amended, 
and is faithfully lived up to unto the present time. 

After the ground had been cleared and drained, the 
village was surveyed, and a plan made of the blocks and 
streets. 

Here again the wonderful wisdom of Mr. Duncan 
showed itself. 

All envy and jealousy must be kept out of the new 
community. 

So, in makiug up the town plat, he divided every block 
into four lots, of eighty by ninety, in order that every 
native householder should have a corner lot. 

But now came the question, how to distribute the dif- 
ferent lots, so that there should be no trouble. 

There was a preference, of course. The lots faciug the 
beach, or rather the public street, ruuniug immediately 
above and along the beach, were the best and the handiest 
for a population which spent half of its life in the cauoe 
or boat. 

The first method of distribution was by the drawing of 
lots. But the result convinced Mr. Duncan that it would 
not give satisfaction. So, thinking it over during the 
night, he evolved another mode, which he felt sure would 
be successful. 

Calling them together the next day, he announced that 
all done the day before would have to be annulled. ''I 
am not going to have you feel badly towards each other, 
if I can help it," he said. "Now I have thought out 



I 



THE PIONEERS 301 

this plan : The oldest brother in each family chooses his 
lot first, then the second, the third, and the fourth. 
Then, if there are more, the same proceeding is resorted 
to in the block back of the front block, etc. If you do 
not then get what you want, don' t blame me. But blame 
yourselves for not having come into the world any sooner 
than you did." 

The humour of this parting shot took hold of the In- 
dian mind, and the plan worked satisfactorily.^ 

The Rev. R. Tomlinson, Mr. Duncan's faithful co-worker 
at old Metlakahtla for the past five years, came over to 
the new place for a few weeks, but, as he could not find any 
conveniences for his large family, he left them behind in 
Mr. Duncan's house at the former home. After consulta- 
tion, they came to the agreement that Mr. Duncan, as he 
now would not be called away from the settlement to 
fight the battles of the natives against the bishop's con- 
tinuous and sinister attacks, could perhaps get along 
alone. And, as Mr. Tomlinson was anxious to take up 
again, at the first opportunity, his work among the upper 
Skeena River Tsimsheans, the Jonathan and David of the 
Coast had an affectionate parting, and Mr. Tomlinson 
thereafter located at Meanskinisht (the foot of the pitch 
pines), where he ever since has continued to carry on a 
blessed work on his own account, without the support of 
any mission society. The fruits of this work will per- 
haps never be fully known, until that great day, when 
our accounts up yonder are finally closed.^ 

' In this connection it slionld be borne in mind that with the 
Tsimsheans, as with the Coast Indians generally, a man's cousins are 
called his brothers and sisters, and treated as such. 

^ In the winter of 1908-9, Mr. Tomlinson, accompanied by his 
estimable wife, at the urgent request of Mr. Duncan, again came to 
Metlakahtla to assist him in his work. It goes without saying that 
the Metlakahtlans gave them a most hearty welcome. 



302 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Dr. Bluett Duncan also accompanied Mr. Duncan to 
the laud of freedom, and for more than five years not only 
gave him the benefit of his Christian sympathy and prac- 
tical advice j but also relieved him, at a time when his 
attention was greatly needed in other directions, of the 
duty of giving medical attendance to the sick. 

It stands to reason, that by the persecutions to which 
Mr. Duncan and the Metlakahtlans had been exposed at 
the hands of both Church and State in British America, 
and by their being deprived of their property, as well as 
of the fruits of years of labour and saving, their funds 
were not in a very excellent state to withstand the drain 
of removal, and of building up anew their little town. 

While Mr. Duncan has always been averse to asking 
any help whatsoever from any one, friends were by God, 
in this their hour of need, mainly by the valuable assist- 
ance of Henry S. Wellcome, a wealthy Englishman, who, 
at his own expense, published and spread broadcast a 
book on the glorious work of Mr. Duncan, raised up, 
both in America and England, with the result that 
within two years of the removal to Alaska, the "Be- 
nevolent Fund," as Mr. Duncan has styled it, had reached 
the sum of $6,591.55. 

At midnight on June 28, 1889, the colony had the mis- 
fortune to see the destruction by fire of their sawmill, and 
of all their sawed and dressed lumber, entailing a loss of 
over $12,000, as there was no insurance. 

On July 10th, Mr. Duncan was already on his way to 
Portland to purchase machinery for a new mill. It is 
evident that it had not taken a long time to make an 
American of him. Though he was not then possessed 
of the means with which to pay for it, he felt the ab- 
solute necessity of quick action, if the building up of the 
new village sliould not receive a serious setback. 

He succeeded in getting extra time allowed him. In 



THE PIONEERS 303 

less than three months from the date of the fire, a new 
mill of greater capacity was running at full blast, and, 
by the following May, friends in America had con- 
tributed, anent this loss, the sum of $6,069.92, thus 
covering about half of the actual misfortune. 

Practically all of this amount had been raised through 
the magnificent efforts of the Hon. E. J. Thomas, of 
Brookline, Massachusetts, who has since gone home to 
his Father's house. 

In the meantime, the building lots distributed had 
been deeded to the persons entitled to them, by the vil- 
lage council, on payment of a three dollar fee, which was 
covered into the treasury. 

The lots were being cleared, fences built, berry and 
vegetable gardens started, and the building of permanent 
houses commenced. 

The dwellings were mostly square, two-storey buildings, 
built of dressed lumber, and provided with verandahs 
and porches. 

In March, 1891, Mr. Duncan could report that ninety- 
one substantial new dwellings had been erected. The 
number of dwellings in the village to-day is one hundred 
and thirty. 

Every year, of late, some of the residents have dis- 
carded their old homes and built new houses. Most of 
them, however, have been concerned, as far as the im- 
provement of their property goes, in freshly painting 
their dwellings, and putting in new picket fences around 
their lots. 

Even among the houses built of late years the square, 
two-storey-building style seems to be the one predomina- 
ting. But a few of the more recently built homes would, 
in style and arrangement, do honour to any little New 
England village of its size. 

Among them may be mentioned Tom Hanbury's 



304 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

house, built in 1902, painted dark green, with white 
trimmings; Alex. Guthrie's bungalow, built in 1903, 
painted pink, with white trimmings, and dark red 
shingled roof, and Beuj. A. Haldane's house, built in 
1906, and painted orange, with white trimmings, and 
dark green shingled roof. The monument in front of 
his house was placed there in honour of his deceased 
father, Matthew Haldane, one of Mr. Duncan's most 
trusted friends, who is not, however, laid to rest at this 
place. He was buried in the cemetery. 



I 



XXXVI 

A DAY AT METLAKAHTLA 

AMONG the iudustries started at 'New Metlakahtla 
was a printing establisliment. One of the na- 
tives was sent to Portland to learn typesetting 
and printing, and a small outfit of type and a hand-press 
were procured. 

On this press, was, within a year after the flitting 
from British Columbia, printed a little hymn-book, or 
** Church Manuel," as the title-page styles it, of thirty- 
six pages, containing eleven hymns in English, fourteen 
hymns in Tsimshean, part of them translations from well- 
known English church hymns, and part original com- 
positions by Mr. Duncan ; the ten commandments, the 
golden rule, and some fifty suitable selections from the 
Scriptures in English, and the Lord's Prayer and the 
Apostolic Benediction in Tsimshean. 

On this printing-press also was printed from time to 
time, with intervals of from two months to one year, 
eight numbers of a little four page, two column, ten by 
seven paper. The MetlaJcahtlan, aiming to be a sort of 
means of communication between the new community and 
its friends in the States. 

The date of the first issue is November, 1888, and of 
the last, December, 1891. 

As, by this time, I take it, the readers have become so 
much interested in the personality of Mr. Duncan, that 
they will prefer to hear as much as they possibly can 
from him personally, it will perhaj)S not be amiss here to 
reproduce an article from his pen in the first number of 

305 



306 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

this paper, entitled ''A Day at Metlakahtla," both be- 
cause it, in itself, is rich in interesting news from the new 
settlement at this early date, and also because it gives a 
veritable pen-picture of what was required of this won- 
derful man, from day to day, while he was superintend- 
ing and assisting in building up a new home for his 
people, as well as of his unlimited capacity for all kinds 
of work. 
The article reads as follows : 



"Nov. 13, 1888. — The weather this morning, like yesterday, 
is fair, bright, and frosty ; such a delightful change from the 
dreary and soaking wet weather we have had for the last two 
months. 

"Having twenty-two men employed, I begin the duties of 
the day by going to look after them. I found waterproof coats 
were doffed, and everybody outside seemed brisk and busy. 
Before I had finished my inspection I was summoned to break- 
fast; but I told the cook to ask Dr. Bluett not to wait for me. 
Having finished my work outside, I took a hasty meal. 

" Then, the school bell rang, and quickly one hundred and 
thirty-two children, all with happy faces, took their places in 
school. . . . We commenced school as usual by singing 
a verse of the good old hymn, ' Guide me, O Thou great 
Jehovah.' Prayer followed, and then the Scripture lesson ; — 
the subject this morning being the meeting of Jacob and 
Esau. The children then marched to their classes, seven in 
number, the sexes being divided, with the exception of the 
first class. I have three native assistants, and we go to work 
at what is called the three R's, and soon the usual hum of 
school sets in. 

" We teach the children to read and write in English, but I 
am sorry to say the lessons furnished in the primary reading 
books are generally very unsuitable for Indian children, having 
too much nonsense about cats owning tails, and dogs being able 
to bark, and so forth ; all such information appearing very 
ridiculous to the Indian aspirant after learning, when translated 
into his mother tongue. 

" This morning the reading lesson in one class was ex- 
ceptionally good ; it was the fable of the dog and the shadow 



A DAY AT METLAKAHTLA 307 

After reading the lesson, the children were asked to write on 
their slates what they thought was the lesson the fable teaches 
us. One boy wrote, ' When people let fall the truth they find 
nothing.' 

"We have no fire in our school, and the building we are 
temporarily using is so drafty, that if King Alfred with his 
candle clock occupied it, he would be obliged to use curtains to 
keep the flame steady. I therefore gave the children ten min- 
utes recess to warm themselves by a scamper on the beach. 
The lively scene which ensued would take too long to de- 
scribe. I suppose this is the only school in Alaska where 
there is no fire, yet I doubt very much whether there is such 
another healthy community of children in any part of the terri- 
tory as ours is. — Time being up, lessons recommenced. 

" At the end of the three school hours the children seem glad 
to get their freedom. The boys rush to secure their wonted 
places for their favourite game of marbles, and so fascinated are 
they with this game that they seem to forget they need any food 
before returning to school. On several occasions I have 
caught them playing in pouring rain ; and, twice lately, I saw 
them playing on the road by the light of a lantern. I see that 
an Indian boy is as proud of his bag of marbles as a white boy 
is. 

"A little pleasant excitement was caused in the village this 
morning by two men — employed by our musicians — setting to 
work to fell a huge and noble-looking pine. The stir was due 
to the difficulty of the undertaking. The tree had to be cut 
about twenty-four feet from the ground, and made to fall in a 
certain direction, to avoid crushing the houses near it. The 
men performed their work admirably, and were so elated with 
their success that they nailed a pole on the top of the stump 
with four small American flags attached to it. The twenty- 
four feet of trunk left standing is to form the base for a stand on 
which the brass band will be mounted to greet our friends, or 
any Government officials, when they come to see us. 

"In the afternoon, I went to our steam sawmill, to talk over 
the work to be done with our native foreman. The men have 
lately completed an order for over 16,000 cases from a salmon 
cannery about thirty miles off. All the work of sawing, plan- 
ing, and stencilling these cases, was done by the natives ; and 
done so satisfactorily, that the order given us for another year 
is nearly doubled. 



308 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

" I then stepped into a sash and furniture workshop, lately 
erected by two native artisans on their own account. They 
have managed to bring into their service a small stream, to 
turn the wheel by which their lathe is worked. The men were 
busy executing an order from a neighbouring Indian tribe for a 
grave fence. I noticed, too, that they had finished a nice-look- 
ing bedstead of yellow cypress, which, I learn, forms part of an 
order from Portland, Oregon. 

" My business with them was to tender the work of making me 
some large windows and doors for the new school we are erect- 
ing, — if we can agree upon the terms. I left them to think 
over the prices, and let me know them to-night. 

" I next walked to the site on which we are erecting our per- 
manent school, and gave some directions to the workmen. 

" In the evening, several of the men came to receive their 
wages, and others to pay their accounts for lumber obtained at 
the mill. 

"After supper, one of our people came to see me privately, 
about a family quarrel which he wished me to help him to settle. 
While, however, he was telling his story, another man walked 
in, to press his complaint against a man of a distant tribe, a 
Haida, who, with his party, happened to be here for the pur- 
pose of trade, and staying in the village guest-house. 

" As it was supposed the accused man would be leaving our vil- 
lage early the next morning, I concluded to settle his case first. 
Accordingly, I sent for the native constable — who holds a com- 
mission from the Government, — and directed him to go and tell 
the stranger I wanted to see him ; and that he might bring his 
friends with him. 

" As the Haida and Tsimshean languages are totally un- 
like, I also sent for one of our people who knows them both, to 
act as interpreter. In the meantime, several persons dropped 
in to listen ; and as soon as the Haida and his friends arrived, 
we opened the case. 

"The aff'air was this: — The complainant, and the accused, 
had met while hunting bears on Prince of Wales Island. The 
former greeted the latter courteously, but his civility was not 
reciprocated. The Haida, both by looks and words, and still 
more particularly by suspiciously manipulating his gun, showed 
signs of anger. The complainant stated that he kept his 
temper, otherwise, he felt sure, violence would have ensued. 
In defence, the accused said, that the complainant, not know- 



A DAY AT METLAKAHTLA 309 

ing the Haida language, had allowed his fears to be unneces- 
sarily aroused ; — that the angry words he used were not ad- 
dressed to the complainant, but to the Haida in company with 
him, — and, as for the way he carried his gun, — that was ex- 
plained by the fact that he was hunting bears. 

"As no act of violence had been committed, or threatening 
language used, it remained for me only to caution and instruct 
the accused man, which I did very fully. I was glad to find 
that my words were well received. He thanked me, and said 
he was glad to hear good words, and know the law, and on his 
return home he would not fail to tell his people what he had 
learned. The complainant and the accused then shook hands 
and went away with the greater part of the audience. 

" Among the few remaining, were the man who came in first 
about the family quarrel, and a Haida, — (not from the same 
village as the man I had just dismissed), who had some trouble 
to tell me of. The latter said that he had chosen a young 
woman from the Thlingit people for a wife, and both the young 
woman and her guardian had favoured his suit. The engage- 
ment being made, he went over to her tribe, and had already 
given a month's labour to her relations for their good-will. 
For some reason, however, of which he professed to be ignorant, 
her guardian had suddenly annulled the engagement, and 
ordered him to leave the village. I promised to send a mes- 
sage to the persons concerned by the first canoe which leaves 
here, and when I have ascertained the facts on the other side, 
I shall know what to advise in the case. There are, I am sorry 
to say, some old customs still rife among these tribes in regard 
to marriage, which are constantly provoking trouble. When 
questioned individually, not an Indian will venture to defend 
them, and yet they retain their hold of the public mind. After 
the Haida had left, I addressed the man who had patiently 
waited some hours for a private interview about his family af- 
fairs. The remedy for his trouble was humility and kindness. 
These I prescribed for him, and he went away. 

"I then had two foremen to talk with about the morrow's 

work. After they had left me, I took a peep at the beautiful 

moonlit sky. Soon I heard the bugle sounding in the village 

the welcome ' Go to bed,' and then came my quiet hour for 

'\ reading." 



XXXVII 

LEAVES FROM MR. DUNCAN'S DIARY 

BEFORE proceeding with a short account of the 
history of the village, in the way of industrial and 
other development, I will invite the reader to par- 
take of a little treat from Mr. Duncan's diary, from which 
I have already, during the earlier phases of the history 
of the mission, drawn quite liberally. 

This diary was faithfully kept up by Mr. Duncan from 
the day he left England until within a few years ago. 

It is not to be understood, however, that he made 
entries in his diary from day to day. But, now and then, 
as something out of the ordinary happened, he chronicled 
the occurrence, more in the nature of a complete sketch, 
than by attempting to give its gradual develox)ment each 
day. 

I am particularly inclined to reproduce these extracts 
from his diary, because they will give the reader an idea 
of the celebration of Christmas and New Year's Day 
among these people every year. Also, because they con- 
tain brief mention of some of the last law cases with 
which Mr. Duncan was burdened. 

In a few years, white settlements were started near by, 
and he then cheerfully limited his magisterial duties to his 
owji people. 

Although Mr. Duncan ever since has been, and still 
is, a United States Commissioner, with all the powers 
and duties of a magistrate, so peacefully inclined are 
these i^eople, and so little crime is committed by or 

310 



LEAVES FROM MR. DUNCAN'S DIARY 311 

among them, at least when at home, that for years this 
office of Mr. Duncan's has been the merest sinecure. In 
fact, his only duty has consisted in making out his annual 
report to this effect : 

" Number of cases tried ? None." 

'' Amount of fees and fines collected ? None." 

' ' Amount of disbursements ? None. ' ' 

I cull the following entries from his diary, with such 
parts omitted, which I do not think of j)articular interest 
at the present time : 

^^ December i8, 1888. — Rarely a day passes that I have not 
some grievances to settle, but one brought before me to-day 
was of more than ordinary interest, reminding me of my early 
days among the Tsimsheans in British Columbia. 

" A native, named Ainuetka, from the village of Lachshaila, 
about thirty miles off, came here a few days ago to lay a com- 
plaint against one Skigahn of the same village. He was ac- 
companied by a brother, to act as his spokesman, and his 
gloomy and morose looks indicated that his trouble was of a 
serious nature. 1 then listened to a long and painful story, 
which convinced me that the complainant and the accused were 
deadly rivals, and that in order to prevent them from shedding 
each other's blood, no time was to be lost in settling their quarrel. 
I, therefore, at once wrote a letter to Skigahn to inform him 
that Ainuetka was at Metlakahtla waiting to meet him before 
me, and that I would undertake to settle their differences as 
peacemaker if he would come here without delay ; but, if he 
refused my invitation, I should be obliged to send men with a 
warrant to arrest him. 

" I well knew that neither Skigahn nor any of his people 
could read the letter I sent, but it served as a seal to the verbal 
message I gave to the bearer. Ainuetka and his brother both 
doubted the efficacy of my plan, assuring me that Skigahn 
would not come to Metlakahtla unless I sent a force to take 
him. Events have shown, however, that their forebodings 
were uncalled for. To-day Skigahn arrived, having travelled 
over thirty miles of dangerous sea in his canoe, with his aged 
uncle and other members of his family. 

"To-night a large gathering of our people assembled to 



312 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

listen to the case. Skigahn — a bold and stern-looking man, 
took his seat, with a defiant stare at his accuser, Ainuetka, and 
the latter at once began to relate a series of attacks made upon 
his person and property. I took notes. 

" Skigahn sat silent and stolid till his turn came to make his 
counter-charges against Ainuetka. 

" Finally, it appeared, that the offences each had committed 
against the other were pretty evenly balanced, and each had, 
while under the influence of liquor, attempted to take the life 
of the other. 

" The case gave me ample scope and illustration for a serious 
address on the misery of a sinful and lawless life, and oppor- 
tunity for showing in contrast the blessings which the Gospel 
of Christ, if embraced, would ensure them. 

"After my address, a solemn scene ensued. Both Ainuetka 
and Skigahn stood up, and each placed his hand on the Bible, 
as a token of their sincere desire to forgive and forget the 
wrongs of the past. This done, they approached each other, 
and shook hands, which act evoked many expressions of joy 
from the audience. Thus a deadly feud was healed ! 

"The mail steamer Idaho, which we have been expecting 
for the last twelve days, arrived this morning, bringing us some 
freight from Portland. As our supply of flour and groceries 
was almost exhausted, and Christmas was very near, — the 
arrival of the steamer caused great rejoicing in the village, and 
especially among the children. Her delay, we were sorry to 
learn, was due to some cripphng injuries she had sustained in a 
gale of wind on her last downward trip. 

" The steamer being bound for Sitka, the seat of govern- 
ment for Alaska, we had, I regret to say, five passengers for 
her, — two white men, being prisoners, and three natives acting 
as guards. The two men were arrested on their way North by 
canoe, over two weeks ago, for smuggling intoxicating liquors, 
and I had to commit them for trial at Sitka. The greater por- 
tion — some 240 gallons — of their liquor fell into our hands, 
and remains in our custody till we receive orders from Sitka 
what to do with it. 

" Suftday, December 2j, 1888. — Our unusually large attend- 
ance at church during the winter season was augmented to-day 
by the addition of some sixty or seventy strangers, who arrived 
here yesterday to spend Christmas with us. Though they came 
without being invited, they were heartily welcomed, and hos- 



LEAVES FROM MR. DUNCAN'S DIARY 313 

pitably received, by our people. Our guests are from four 
native villages, and of two distinct languages ; — both being 
very different to the language of the Metlakahtlans. 

" Monday, January f, i88q. — Christmas and New Year is 
always a joyous season with the people of Metlakahtla, and the 
last one has proved to be no exception to the rule. Though 
still living in temporary shanties, built among stumps and huge 
trees, both standing and fallen, yet the people are healthy and 
happy. 

"Some few days before Christmas the usual avocations of 
the natives are suspended, — smiling faces greet you everywhere, 
and the village storekeepers are overwhelmed with business. 

" The church elders hold meetings for the purpose of restor- 
ing the fallen, and reconciling to each other persons who have 
quarrelled. 

" On Christmas Eve there is a noticeable stillness outside, 
but the houses are illuminated. The waits are rehearsing their 
Christmas carols in the schoolroom, and I have deputations 
from the officials of the village, — council, elders, constables, — ■ 
brass band, and fire brigade, to interrogate me about the pro- 
ceedings of to-morrow. Late at night, the two men, — one 
being a born artist, — who have designed and secretly prepared 
some Christmas decorations, are busy arranging them in our 
temporary church. During the first hours of Christmas morn- 
ing the voices of thirty of our young men are heard outside, 
singing hymns of praise, some in their own tongue, and some 
in English. 

"On Christmas morning, at ii o'clock, our church was 
crowded for divine service. The decorations were admirable, 
both in design and execution. The principal figure was an 
angel with outstretched wings, holding in each hand an olive 
branch, and supporting most gracefully, by both hands, a 
flying scroll, some thirty feet long, on which was written 
' On earth peace, good will to men. Nations shall learn war 
no more.' 

" The service was commenced by chanting our Christmas 
song in Tsimshean ; and, preceding the address, the choir sang 
the anthem, ' God is the refuge of His people.' The collec- 
tion amounted to ^130.08, the largest sum ever contributed by 
our people on one occasion. The money will be passed to the 
building fund for the proposed new church. 

"The afternoon was occupied with the children, — happy 



314 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

family, indeed ! 190 of whom received toys — while but five 
were sent empty away for misconduct. 

" The last night in the year was dark and stormy; neverthe- 
less, the attendance at our midnight meeting was very large. 
The order of the service was as follows : Hymn in Tsimshean 
on the departure of another year ; prayer ; address on Peter's 
bitter repentance; silent prayer from 11:55 ^o 12:05 ; singing 
the prodigal's resolve, and a hymn on the opening year; 
address on St. Paul's cry for guidance ; anthem, ' Safely 
through another year ; ' the service being closed with prayer 
by two of the elders. 

" The ist of January was a memorable day at Metlakahtla. 
In the morning, all the men assembled to witness the admit- 
tance of fifteen new members to our male community, ten of 
whom were from four native villages near by, and five were 
Tsimsheans. The newcomers were placed in the centre of the 
building, and, after my address, each approached the table, 
and placed his left hand on the Bible, and raised his right, in 
token of the sincerity of his act. He then subscribed his name 
to be a faithful member of our community, obedient to the law, 
and loyal to the Government of the United States. 

"In the evening all the men again assembled, this time for 
tea, talk, and music. The strangers were invited, and their 
table was placed in the centre of the building. Our feast con- 
sisted of biscuits, tea, apples, and raisins. The brass band 
played at intervals, and sixteen stirring speeches were made. 
After my address, we sang the doxology, and the meeting 
closed. Before leaving, the council and elders tendered their 
badges of office, as the new elections for these offices will take 
place this week. 

^'January 18, i88g. — Sad news. A canoe manned by na- 
tives arrived from Tongas late last night, bringing the corpse 
of a murdered man, and the murderer; — both white men. 
This morning I held an inquest, and took the depositions of 
witnesses. The six jurors were Metlakahtlans, and, on their 
verdict, I committed the accused for trial. He will leave here 
under native guard in a few days. 

" Intoxicating liquor, procured, as usual, at Port Simpson, 
from the store of the Hudson's Bay Company, was at the bot- 
tom of this sad tragedy." 



XXXVIII 

SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 

ONE of the first public buildings erected in Metla- 
kahtla, Alaska, was the village store. It is op- 
erated by Mr. Duncan, and carries a stock of 
general merchandise, of the average value of about 
$20,000. The goods are sold to the natives at a small ad- 
vance over the cost price. Not far away from the store 
is Mr. Duncan's private dwelling and ofSce. 

In the front part of this building is his of&ce. (See 
illustration of ' ' Duncan in his den. " ) On one side of this 
office is his bedroom, and on the other, a storeroom for 
his account books and papers. In the rear is a dining- 
room, high ceiled as his office, and both heated only with 
fireplaces. Adjoining the dining-room are three bed- 
rooms and the kitchen. In this lowly dwelling, Mr. 
Duncan has always insisted on remaining, though far 
better quarters have for years been near at hand, but 
remain unoccupied, except for occasional visitors. 

During the first two years in Metlakahtla, Alaska, 
there was no regular house of worship. The temporary 
schoolroom was too small, so, at first, the services were 
held on the beach and the rocks, and, later on, in a shed 
built for industrial purposes. 

But, on the 29th day of April, 1889, a queer-looking 
building with twelve gables, intended originally for the 
public school, was finished, and here divine services were 
held until the large, fine church was completed. 

Of late, this building, which is heated with hot water, 

315 



316 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

and lighted by large oil lamps, has been denominated the 
''Town Hall." The natives have their feasts or tea- 
parties here on festive occasions, and here all concerts 
and public entertainments take jjlace. 

In March, 1890, the Boys' Home, a building in the 
shape of a St. Peter's cross, was ready for occupancy, but 
could not be taken in use till the next year, when a new 
teacher arrived. The Boys' Home, because of want of 
proper teachers, did not prove a success, its name was 
changed to the " educational building," and the public 
school for children of both sexes was there housed. In it 
are now also located the young men's evening schoolroom, 
the Sunday-school teachers' classroom, the place for the 
mid-week prayer- meeting and the public reading-room. 

The same Fall the Mission Building (see illustration), 
or the Industrial Training School for girls, with rooms 
on one side for the teacher's family, and on the other for 
the doctor's, as well as for the pharmacy of the village, 
which is well stocked with all necessary medicines and 
preparations, was ready from the builder's hand. Up- 
stairs are dormitories for twenty-four girls, and below, in 
the centre of the house, the dining-room, and in front a 
large school hall, which now, for several years, has been 
used as the council room, where the village council holds 
its meetings. Both this hall and the large schoolroom in 
the educational building are heated by open fireplaces in 
the centre of the room. A large hood of sheet -iron comes 
down above the fireplace, and not only carries away the 
smoke, but acts as a si)lendid ventilator. 

In the Spring of 1890, a cannery building was erected, 
and that Summer a beginning was made of the salmon 
canning iudustiy : four hundred and seventy cases, of 
four dozen cans each, were canned. 

But as Mr. Duncan's funds were not sufficient to carry 
on this business on the scale which was necessary, if it 




EDUCATKJXAI. BL'ILDIXG AT .METLAKAHTLA 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 317 

should prove profitable, he finally was induced to ask 
some of his friends for assistance, in the following way : 

A corporation, ' ' The Metlakahtla Industrial Com- 
pany," was formed, with $25,000 capital stock. Of this 
stock, Mr. Duncan and a few of the natives took about 
half. The other half was donated by friends of the mis- 
sion, with the understanding that if the enterprise came 
through all right, they should be paid back the money 
advanced. If not, they would lose it, and he would be 
under no obligation to repay them. 

On the first of January, 1895, Mr. Duncan formally 
turned over to this corporation all the industries of the 
colony, the store, and the sawmill, as well as the cannery. 
This business was managed so prudently that, in 1905, 
the corporation could be dissolved, as having served its 
purpose. The native stockholders were paid back their 
money, with fifteen per cent, interest per annum for the 
time they had had their money invested. This interest 
had been paid to them annually. The other stockholders 
received their money back, with seven and a half per cent, 
interest, and Mr. Duncan now personally took over all the 
business and the property, including the two steamers in 
the meantime acquired, boats, barges, nets, and the entire 
stock of lumber, merchandise, and canned salmon on 
hand. 

- Since that time aU of the business has been carried on 
by him personally, with the aid of trusted native em- 
ployees in the different departments. 

In the month of June, 1890, the village had the honour 
of receiving the first official visit of the Governor of 
Alaska, the Hon. Lyman E. Knapp. 

The Governor arrived on a United States Eevenue 
Cutter on Sunday ; but so strict was the Sabbath observ- 
ance rule at Metlakahtla that even the Governor of the 
Territory could not be officially received until the fol- 



318 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

lowing day, when a platform was erected near the beach, 
and a reception held for him. 

Speeches were delivered by leading natives, and by 
the Governor, who promised to do all in his power to se- 
cure them an established and definite right to the Island, 
and what they always have so much desired, citizenship. 

The first of these rights was accorded them by Congress 
the next year, but the boon of citizenship is still being 
withheld from them, though President Eoosevelt, in his 
admirable message to Congress in 1905, strongly urged 
upon that body to grant this privilege to the Metlakahtia 
Indians, whom he did not hesitate, in this interesting 
State pai)er, to characterize as highly intelligent and 
civilized, and fully entitled to all the rights and privi- 
leges of citizenship. Congress, however, failed to act up 
to his suggestion in this matter, as in so many others. 
Subsequent events have shown that the temx)er of Con- 
gress, with reference to granting citizenship, or the right 
to acquire citizeushij) to any other than Caucasians and 
negroes, was such, that there was no hope of passing an 
Act allowing these highly civilized Indians the right 
to become naturalized, a right which is freely granted, 
every day in the year, to other much less intelligent and 
patriotic aliens. 

Senator Knute l^elson, of Minnesota, who has taken a 
great interest in the welfare of Metlakahtia, therefore, on 
February 4, 1907, introduced a bill to grant them the right 
to obtain licenses as pilots, captains, and engineers, and 
to run and operate their own motor boats, with the same 
force and effect as if they were citizens of the United 
States. This bill, by the kindly aid of President Eoose- 
velt, then, as always, the determined friend of the Met- 
lakahtlaus, who instructed the Department of Commerce 
and Labour to take all proper steps to secure its prompt 
passage, became a law in the very short time remaining 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 319 

of that session of Congress, and, on the 4tli day of 
Marcli, A. D. 1907, received the signature of the President. 

It is to be ho]Ded that in the near future Congress will 
see that it cannot any longer afford to refuse to these 
civilized and intelligent men the right of citizenship, 
which was explicitly promised them, as they thought, with 
the full approval of the national government, by the 
Governor of Alaska, when they first came to this 
country. 

In the summer of 1891, things had progressed so far at 
Metlakahtla, that 6, 000 cans of salmon were canned, and 
over $10,000 paid to the natives in wages from this branch 
of the industries alone. 

That winter saw ninety-five new, permanent dwellings 
erected. Since then, their number has been added to, so 
that there now are one hundred and thirty private dwell- 
ings, all told, in the village. 

On K'ovember 5, 1892, the second steam sawmill erected 
by Mr. Duncan in the village was destroyed by fire, at a 
net loss of nearly $9,000. 

This second fire, which was due to the carelessness of 
one of the native operators, determined Mr. Duncan to 
make use of the splendid water-power obtained from the 
"Lake in the Clouds," filling an old crater, about 800 
feet above sea level, in the mountain valley of ' ' Purple 
Mountain," located on the other side of the bay, and the 
overflow of which tumbles down the mountainside. 

At an expense of $9,000 he now built a dam at the 
mouth of this lake, and a pipe line down the mountain- 
side and around the bay, and thereby not only provided 
water-power for the new sawmill, which now was being 
run by a Pelton water-wheel, but also furnished all neces- 
sary water for the cannery, and, in addition, a splendid 
water supply for the use of the whole village. 

The business affairs of the colony were now in such 



320 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

shape that this new work was done, the mill rebuilt, and 
new machinery purchased, without Mr. Duncan having 
to call on his friends outside for any help whatsoever. 

The 12th day of February, 1893, was a sad day in the 
history of Metlakahtla. 

For several weeks a north wind had been blowing. 
The north winds in that part of Alaska always bring fine 
weather. There had been no rain at all for a long time, 
and everything in the village was as dry as tinder. 

A veritable gale from the northeast was blowing, when, 
near noon, the fire-bell clanged. People looked at each 
other with fear and trembling. 

" An awful day for a fire ! " 

"Where was it?" 

Fortunately, it had started in the western portion of 
the village. In an hour or two all of that part of the 
village (except two houses, which miraculously escaped 
unscathed, though located directly in the path of the 
flames), some twenty dwellings in all, with the contents 
of most of them, were wiped out of existence by the fierce 
fire fiend. The best fire department in the world could 
have done nothing, under the circumstances. The flames 
simply kei)t on licking all with voracious tongues till no 
more food for them could be found. 

Here was a beautiful opportunity for the Metlakahtla 
people to show what Christianity had done for them. 
And they did not fail. Not only did neighbours make 
room for those who had no home ; but in less than two 
days $1,600, to be distributed among the fire sufferers, 
was raised right in the little village, and about $1,000 
of the amount came from the poor natives themselves, 
though they were at this very time struggling hard to 
recover from the losses entailed upon them when they 
had to give up all that was theirs for the sake of their 
faith. 




MISSION HOUSE AT METLAKAHTLA Sec page sib 




CANXERY BUILDINGS AT METLAKAHTLA Seepage sn 




I 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 321 

As soon as news of the misfortune reached the outside, 
God touched many hearts, and in a very short time 
nearly $3,000, in money and contributions in natura, 
came for the benefit of the sufferers, $1,000 of this 
amount frcan a gentleman in London, Eugland, Henry S. 
Wellcome, Esq., who on this occasion, and not for the 
first time, showed his great interest in Mr. Duncan and 
the Metlakahtla Indians. 

This fire stirred the village council up to procure at 
once four hand -pumps, with hose, for fire protection. 
Two fire-bells were also bought, to be placed in different 
parts of the town. A bucket and ladder company was 
organized. Cisterns were located near the houses. In 
short, many measures for better protection against fire 
were now taken. 

Within a year, the burned district was rebuilt, thanks 
especially to the timely aid granted. 

In 1893, ground had been broken for the magnificent 
church to be erected in the village, the building of which 
had been delayed so long only because it was Mr. Dun- 
can's aim to build a church that would in every way be 
an honour to the place. 

In April, 1894, the raising of the heavy framework was 
commenced in earnest, and, on Christmas Day, 1896, could 
be dedicated and used for the first time what many peo- 
ple are pleased to call ''Mr. Duncan's Westminster 
Abbey" (see illustration), even unto this day the 
largest church in Alaska, and most certainly a magnifi- 
cent temple of worship. It is one hundred feet long, has 
a seventy foot span, is forty-three feet to the ceiling, and 
the tops of the spires on the towers are eighty feet above 
the ground. 

The cost of this edifice, where everything, except the 
fine pipe organ and the gas fixtures, is the work of the 
natives, was a little over $10,000. Of this amount, the 



322 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

natives themselves had contributed $2, 500. About $3, 000 
had been taken from the Benevolent Fund, one-half from 
the amount already mentioned as having been contributed 
by friends in England and the United States at an earlier 
period, and the other half from later contributions for the 
express purpose of helping Mr. Duncan to build this 
beautiful temple to God. But by far the greater amount, 
about $4,500, was donated by Mr. Duncan himself from 
his own private funds. 

The church is heated by a hot water plant, and is lighted 
by acetylene gas. 

The cost of maintaining it, by way of repairs and paint- 
ing needed (therein included the cost of the lighting 
plant), from January, 1897, to July 1, 1908, was the sum 
of $2,751.30. This does not include pastor's, organist's, 
janitor's, or any other salaries. All these services are, 
at Metlakahtla, given gratuitously. 

Of this amount, the natives have by their Thanksgiv- 
ing and New Years' offerings, since 1896, raised the sum 
of $2,144.90. (There are no collections taken at the regu- 
lar services. ) From offerings by tourists of the different 
excursions visiting Metlakahtla during the last twelve 
years, the total sum of $1,005.99 has been received, so 
there was, on the first day of July, 1908, on hand in the 
church fund, a balance of $400. 

For a long time after the removal, travel about the 
streets of Metlakahtla was, after heavy rains (and heavy 
rains are of rather frequent occurrence in a country where 
the annual rainfall is usually about 120 inches), a decid- 
edly unpleasant undertaking. 

But in the nineties, it was concluded to obtain, on 
credit from Mr. Duncan, planks to the amount of $2,000, 
and to apply the village tax, which in 1889 had been fixed 
at three dollars per annum for each adult, to work on the 
Btreels. 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTOEY 323 

In this, as in almost all Alaska towns, the streets con- 
sist of plank walks. 

From 1895 to 1900 considerable work was done, and 
in the latter year the planking of the village streets had 
been completed. During these five years from $600 to 
$1,000 was every year expended in cash and labour in 
and about planking the streets. In 1903, the total ex- 
penditure on village improvements was $1,300, and, in 
1906, when the whole of the front street was replanked 
for a distance of about one mile, the public work expend- 
iture exceeded $1,500. 

In 1897, Mr. Duncan finished the ^'Guest-House," 
another strange, octagonal-shaped building, which is com- 
pletely furnished, including seven bedrooms up-stairs, 
drawing-room, library, dining-room, and a very elab- 
orate kitchen down-stairs. Mr. Duncan says he has built 
It for his successor. Perhaps that is the reason he de- 
chnes positively to move into it himself, for it is in every 
way more convenient and suitable than the little house 
containing his den. His private library is, however, in- 
stalled in this building. (An illustration of the Guest- 
House will be found on a near-by page.) 

Mr. Duncan's reasons for the many gables and sides of 
his buildings are, first : that he thinks it gives greater 
strength to resist the winds, which in the winter season 
j can be very violent at Metlakahtla, and, next, because he 
1 expects thereby to secure better ventilation, as he in the 
town hall has provided a ventilator in the top portion of 
every one of the twelve gables. 

In 1905, the last public building to be erected at Met- 
lakahtla, a combination of jail, engine house, and public 
library building, was completed. It is painted in all the 
national colours. The first storey is red, as befits an en- 
gine house, if not a jail. The library storey is painted in 
w^hite, and the cupola in blue. 



324 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The iail portiou is a perfectly pertoctory institution. 
The only occupant I have ever known it to have is now 
and then, a small boy, whose mother cannot manage him 
and gets Mr. Duncan to help her by placing him under 
restraTnt for a few hours. lu the Summer of 1908, an m- 
corrio-ible girl had a taste of jail life for a day. 

The public library housed in the second storey was in- 
stalled in the Winter of 1905 and 1906. It is the largest 
public library in Alaska, and contains 2,077 volumes, 
r. 353 volumes of religious books ; 329 of history, 
geography, travels, and biography; 38 of politics, gov-^ 
ernment, and political economy; 845 of fiction ; 265 of 
Xellakeous books; 70 of music, and 265 of reference 
books. The latter cannot be removed from the libraiy, 
but must be used there. The library is kept open for a 
couple of hours every Saturday night. 

The books in the library most prized by the nativ s 
are two volumes of ''Presidential Addresses and State 
Papers," presented to the library by President Eoose- 
vXand bearing upon the fly-leaf of the first volume, m 
the President's own handwriting, the inscription : 

-With good wishes for the Metlakahtla Indians from 
wiui guuu ^^ Theodore Roosevelt. 

" October 8, 1905 P 

Among other books contained in the library is a full 
set of President Eoosevelt's Works, in beautiful morocco 
bind ng, a <ie luxe edition of Universal Antho ogy 
S2 vols ), a full set of the United States Digest, of he 
American Digest, and of the United States Coinpied 
Statutes, a de luxe edition of Talmage's Sermons C^l 
vols.), an old edition of Plutarch's Lives (6 vols), 
printed in London in 1758 ; complete «ets of all the works 
of Dickens, Thackeray, Marryat, Scott, Wilkie Colhns, 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 325 

Hall Caine, Fennimore J. Cooper, Ealph Counor, George 
Eliot, Mary A. Fleming, Eider Haggard, Hawthorne, 
Mary Holland, Anthony Hope, Bulwer Lytton, Henty, 
Carleton, Emma Southworth, and Mark Twain. Several 
modern encyclopedias, dictionaries, and Bible dictiona- 
ries are also found on the shelves. 

This library was culled from the private libraries of 
prominent citizens of Minneapolis, Minn., and several 
publishing houses, such as the Fleming H. Eevell Co., 
Funk & Wagnalls Co., S. S. Scranton Co., The Hope Pub- 
lishing Co., and the West Publishing Co. also made 
valuable contributions from their publications. 

The l^orthern Pacific Eail way Company and the Alaska 
Steamship Company carried the library books free of ex- 
pense to their destination, and Mr. Duncan kindly housed 
and shelved them. 

A catalogue of the books in the library has been 
printed, and can be obtained from the librarian for fifty 
cents. As the proceeds from the sale are devoted to 
meeting the expenses of the library, any one who desires 
to contribute for that puripose can do so by forwarding 
fifty cents in postage stamps to the ' ' Librarian of the 
Public Library" at Metlakahtla for a copy of the cata- 
logue. It will prove interesting as a memento of the 
great work done there. 

The natives, who obtain the books without any fee or 
charge whatsoever, have taken out about one hundred 
library cards, and the library is fairly well patronized. 

On October 2, 1907, the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. 
Duncan's arrival at Fort Simpson was celebrated at 
•Metlakahtla. 

It at first was intended to have a central general cele- 
bration of the day, either at Port Simpson or old Metla- 
kahtla, and an invitation was extended to Mr. Duncan to 
come over there ; but he absolutely declined to go where 



326 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

old wounds could not help being reopened, so the natives 
of Metlakahtla resolved to celebrate the anniversary at 
their own home. 

They all gathered early in the town hall, which was 
decorated with evergreens, festoons, and flags. Four of 
the elders made impressive and touching addresses, inter- 
spersed with prayer, and four beautiful anthems were 
sung by the church choir. 

The room was then transformed into a banquet hall, 
where, at three p. m. , three hundred people were seated, 
and the good women of Metlakahtla served a most excel- 
lent dinner, while the Metlakahtla brass baud furnished 
choice music. 

A fine, leather covered chair was presented to Mr. 
Duncan by his people. 

John Tait and Sidney Campbell, who both were pres- 
ent when he landed at Fort Simpson fifty years ago, 
addressed him at length in words of appreciation of his 
life and labour among them, and pledged themselves and 
the people to love him better than ever in the future. 

Mr. Duncan, on being led to the chair, spoke at length 
in Tsimshean, rehearsing, like a Moses or Joshua of old, 
all that God had wrought for them those many years. 

The Rev. J. A. Chapman, the Methodist preacher of 
Ketchikan, some seventeen miles distant, then spoke. 

The crowning event of the day, however, was the ren- 
dering by a choir of forty native voices, in a most excel- 
lent manner, of Handel's renowned oratorio ''Messiah," 
under the leadership of Edward Marsden, with Benja- 
min A. Haldane at the organ. 

The 13th of June, 1908, was the fiftieth anniversary of 
the preaching by Mr. Duncan of his first sermon in Tsim- 
shean. The day was remembered in prayer in every 
house at Metlakahtla. But no public celebration oc- 
curred. Mr. Duncan does not care much for auui versa- 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 327 

ries, and the celebration, ou October 2, 1907, would 
probably uever have taken place had it depended on 
him. 

The fact remains, however, that the wonderful work 
which has been done, and the remarkable results which 
we find in the beautiful village of Metlakahtla, are 
practically, under God, the sole work of this one man, 
and others undoubtedly feel that the memory of this fact 
should be kept green, however much he personally, by 
reason of his innate modesty, may deprecate it. 

We have seen that, with the exception of five years, 
when he had the benefit of the invaluable services of Mr. 
Tomlinson and Dr. Bluett- Duncan, he, while at old Metla- 
kahtla, had practically no help in his work, except that 
of the native teachers, which he himself had educated. 

Most of the time he has laboured in Alaska, he has 
been in the same position. And, when this has been so, 
it is not because he was not willing to secui'e the aid of 
competent and able assistants. Time after time they have 
come to him, and gone again after a short stay. It is not 
given to every one to endure the isolation and solitude of 
the position, as he has been able to do. It is not as easy 
a matter as one might imagine. The climate is trying. 
The difficulties of the work are manifold. The life be- 
comes almost that of a hermit. It may be that Mr. Dun- 
can has so long been accustomed to being monarch of all 
he surveys, that assistants chafe under the form of 
government which he has unwittingly established at 
Metlakahtla. I think it may safely be characterized as 
an " absolute monarchy," although the monarch is both 
kind, pleasant, and lovable. The hand that rules Metla- 
kahtla wears a velvet glove. But the hand is there 
within the glove just the same all the time. 

After Dr. Bluett-Duncan left, Dr. H. J. Minthorn, 
with wife and daughter, spent nearly three years on the 



328 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Island on two different occasions. They are all remem- 
bered and beloved for their many kindnesses and valuable 
services, he as a doctor, and his wife and daughter as 
teachers. 

After an interval of one year, the village had a new 
doctor, in Dr. Ernest R. Pike, who, with his wife, spent 
there a honeymoon of two years, from 1899 to 1901. 

Thomas Boyd, who had studied medicine in Ireland, 
came to act both as missionary teacher, and as doctor, 
and filled both positions to the satisfaction of all parties 
concerned, from February, 1903, to December, 1904, when 
he, on account of failing health, was compelled to return 
to Europe, where he, ere long, died, leaving an estimable 
wife and a lovely little daughter, the first white child 
born on Annette Island. 

When Mr. Duncan first came to Alaska, the Govern- 
ment offered him assistance in the educational branch of 
his work, and allowed him $1,200 per year, with which 
to pay a teacher or teachers in his school. 

When he had received this help for about six years, — 
and that it was a welcome one during those trying years 
we may well imagine, — a rule was promulgated that the 
Bible should not be taught in any school in Alaska sup- 
ported by governmental aid. When Mr. Duncan learned 
of this, he immediately refused to receive another dollar 
of Government money. 

"The Bible will not be exiled from any school that I 
have anything to do with," he said. 

The same grand old man ! 

' ' This one thing I do ! " 

Other missionaries in Alaska circumvented the order. 
They had their Bible reading and studying, but at special 
sessions. Then they adjourned, and walking the children 
around the building, came in again and organized the 
school. 





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DAVID LKASK AXD l-AAlNAr 




METLAKAllTLA GIRLS' ZOliO iiAXD .sv.Ari^c- .,V7 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 329 

Mr. Dancan was, however, too great a man for such 
tricks. Let the money go ! God would give help ! And 
He has. 

Of the white teachers who have come and gone at Met- 
lakahtla, besides those already mentioned, we may note : 
Mr. and Mrs. J. F. McKee, from Pennsylvania, from 
April to October, 1892 ; E. W. Weesner and wife, Qua- 
kers, from August, 1893, to October, 1894 ; John H. Had- 
ley and wife from Iowa, from August to December, 1897 j 
and Miss Daisy Stromstedt, from September 1, to Novem- 
ber 1, 1906. 

David Leask was, till he died in 1899, a great help to 
Mr. Duncan in the schoolroom, and during the last four 
or five years his daughter, Martha Leask, has been em- 
ployed the greater part of the time. 

Alonzo Hamblett, a half-breed, with a good education, 
served as a teacher in 1897 and 1898. 

I will frankly admit that of late years the children have 
not received the attention they should, and which their 
fathers and mothers in their youth received from Mr. 
Duncan personally. His many duties make it impossi- 
ble for him to personally give the time he would like to 
the education of the young. Mr. Duncan sees this as well 
as any one, and he sincerely regrets that he, unfortunately, 
has been unable to help matters. He hopes that different 
results may be expected now, as he has secured the serv- 
ices, as schoolmaster, of an earnest Christian gentleman, 
Mr. Bertram G. Mitchell, formerly principal of the pub- 
lic schools in Ketchikan, Alaska, who, with his wife, re- 
moved to Metlakahtla in August, 1908. 

But if he has had bad luck in getting schoolmasters, 
who would make a long stay at Metlakahtla, he has cer- 
tainly been most fortunate in haviug with him, for all of 
ten years, an excellent Scotch couple, Mr. and Mrs. James 
Wallace. During all these years, Mrs. Wallace has faith- 



330 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

fully tried to make Mr. Duncan's home as pleasant for 
him as it could be made by a neat and most excellent 
housekeeper. And Mr. Wallace has, by discharging the 
duties of i^ostmaster, and wharfinger, as well as by taking 
care of the excellent fruit and vegetable garden, himself 
been a great help and comfort to Mr. Duncan. 

All the more the pity that he, after this year, will miss 
their valuable assistance and pleasant Christian society, 
as they intend to go South, and settle on their beautiful 
little farm near Portland, Oregon. 

When we do not count the schoolmasters, who, for the 
last ten years, have occasionally flitted so far North for 
very short and limited periods, Mr. and Mrs. Wallace 
have been the only white people permitted to live at 
Metlakahtla, with the exception of an old French Cana- 
dian, Jeremiah Zuruet, who claims to be over one hundred 
and five years old, but who probably, in fact, is not over 
ninety-five. He was at Fort Simpson before Mr. Duncan, 
married a Tsirashean woman, moved with the natives to 
old Metlakahtla, and also to Alaska. He is quite a fac- 
tor on the island, inasmuch as he has three children, 
eighteen grandchildren, and seventeen great-grandchil- 
dren ; but is hardly possessed of the sterling qualities of 
the natives, who stand far above him in intelligence and 
education. 

There were 823 natives who emigrated to New Metla- 
kahtla. Since that time a few new residents have been 
added to the colony, but not many. And a few have 
left, some for the old place, but more for other places in 
Alaska, notably Ketchikan, where they have a better 
opportunity to earn more wages. 

The last census of the village, in the summer of 1908, 
shows a population of only 683. This decrease in the 
population is mainly due to the excessive mortality rate. 

While Southeastern Alaska is not an unhealthy coun- 



SOME METLAKAHTLA HISTORY 331 

try iit all (in fact, some one has jocularly said that no one 
dies there, except from accident or old age), still, it must 
be admitted that the adoption of the clothing and food of 
the whites by the natives does not seem to have added 
anything to the condition of their health and strength. 
Quite the opposite is the sad actuality. Tuberculosis, 
aud pulmonary troubles generally, seem to be the pre- 
vailing causes of death, while a couple of epidemics of 
influenza, and one of whooping-cough, have claimed their 
share of victims. 

According to the records, which, however, are not very 
complete as to the cause of death, there have been not less 
than fifty-five deaths from the white plague, out of a total 
of 502 deaths, as against only 452 births ^ recorded from 
the time of removal to Alaska up to July 1, 1908. 

Of the deaths, 146 were of infants, 106 of children from 
two to ten years, and sixty-three of adolescents from ten to 
twenty years old. Some twenty -four deaths were caused 
by accident, mostly drowning. One old woman died at 
an age exceeding ninety years. (She was married, and 
had children before the white people first came to Nass 
Eiver, in 1832) ; twenty-six of the deaths were of people 
between eighty and ninety ; twenty of between seventy 
and eighty, the same number between sixty and seventy, 
aud twenty-six between fifty and sixty. So, it seems, 
that if a native can manage to get through childhood, he 
has a pretty fair prospect of longevity. 

' As no particular record of births is kept at Metlakahtla, only of 
children brought into the church the first Sunday of each year to be 
prayed for, it is quite likely that there have been considerably many 
more births than here stated. It is perhaps fair to estimate that at 
least fifty per cent, of the 146 children given as having died in infancy 
never were so presented, and that probably the true number of births 
would come nearer 525 than as above given. But, even so, this cer- 
tainly shows a bad condition of things. 



332 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The death-rate among the children, which is so much 
greater in proportion than in the settlements in the 
States, is perhaps, in a large measure, due to the exposure 
which follows from the habit of taking their families 
along and camping out on their logging, fishing, and 
trapping tours ; but I cannot doubt that the change in the 
building of their houses, which precludes the ventilation 
and constant supply of fresh air, which their old mode of 
building, with the central fireplace, and the large opening 
in the roof for the escape of smoke, insured, has consider- 
ably to do with the waning health, and deplorably excess- 
ive death-rate among these people. 

This state of things, of course, affects the parents as 
well as the children. Some remedy must certainly be 
found for this high mortality rate in the near future, or 
the funeral knell of the whole race will soon be sounded. 



J 




VIEW OF METLAKAHTLA FROM THE SEA 




I 



VIEW OF AlETLAKAirn. A LOOKING DOWN MAIN 

stki-:i-:t 



XXXIX 

FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 

NO more beautiful sight meets the eyes of an ex- 
cursionist in Alaska than the vista that this 
little village presents on a sunlit day, as the 
steamer approaches it. 

What first attracts the eye is perhaps the curious little 
island, which lies right across the entrance to the bay, 
and very properly has been called ''Duncan's battle- 
ship." 

It takes very little imagination to believe, when at 
some distance, that a real battle-ship is anchored at the 
inlet to the harbour. Passing along, one notices the 
beautiful little " Good Time Island," as the natives call 
it, and then looms in full sight the magnificent ' ' Purple 
Mountain," which towers above the sea some 2,500 feet, 
with the silvery strip of a waterfall leaping down its 
dizzy height from "The Lake in the Clouds." To the 
right, and directly behind the church, is "Yellow Hill," 
so called from its peculiar colour, caused by the action of 
the elements on the serpentine buildiug stone, of which 
this immense rocky ridge consists. 

Then, what first attracts the eye are the public build- 
ings on Mission Street, and especially the magnificent 
church, all in glorious white coats. Below these build- 
ings, and nearer to the beach, are strewn around in the 
luxurious verdure of the gardens, the houses of the 
natives, painted in all colours ; pink, green, light and 
dark, orange, lemon, gray, and white — the latter two 
colours predominating. 

333 



334 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

No one approaching this peaceful little village doubts 
that it is a place of happy homes. Everything indicates 
it. And if you know something about what a model 
village lies before you, you certainly do not doubt that 
peace and happiness here reign supreme. 

We assuredly can most properly call it a model village, 
for, upon inquiry, we learn that in this little town a glass 
of liquor cannot be had for love or money. That a pipe 
or cigar is never seen within its limits, except when the 
tourists bring them along. That one never hears there, 
from one end of the year to the other, God's name taken 
in vain, or any oath of any kind uttered. That when 
Sunday comes, the quiet and peace of the true Sabbath 
rest over the village. Not an axe is lifted to chop 
kindling ; not a pail of water is carried ; not an oar is 
dipped into the sea until after the last service is over 
Sunday night, at 8 : 30. All of these people come as near 
living a consistent Christian life, loving each other, car- 
ing for the poor and nursing the sick, as any Christian 
community in the land, or for all of that, in any land. 

So many people have an idea that all of Alaska is a 
refrigerator, that it may be proper here to say that the 
winters in this part of Alaska are not at all cold. The 
influence of the Kuro Shiwo, or Japanese Current, which 
circles around the islands, prevents excessive cold. 

As a general thing, the thermometer does not go below 
the freezing point, and it is only on two or three occasions 
during the last twenty years, it has been known to go 
down to zero, or under. 

So, while snow lies all winter on the mountains, and 
across Clarence Strait on the higher mountains of Prince 
of Wales Island all summer too, at Metlakahtla it hardly 
ever stays more than a day or two, and it is not by any 
means every year that the young people can enjoy the 
sport of skating, on the little lake back of the village. 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 335 

But whenever the winter is cold enough to freeze the lake 
over, skating parties are the order of the day, and even 
a picnic party on the ice is not considered any less the 
proper thing than the summer picnic parties in the forests 
in the States. 

On account of the mild weather in the winter, there is 
not a plastered house in Metlakahtla. In fact, there is no 
necessity for it. Nor are there any screens protecting 
doors or windows, as there are no mosquitoes in the 
summer. 

Even on a warm day in the summer the refreshing sea 
breezes see to it that the thermometer hardly ever climbs 
any higher than eighty degrees. The nights, following 
on a warm day, are always refreshingly cool. 

The climate here has, however, its drawbacks. Both 
in summer and winter, and especially in the winter, there 
is an enormously heavy rainfall. Some years it has even 
exceeded 120 inches. In the winter time, there are, fur- 
ther, very disagreeable wind storms, occasionally lasting 
for days in succession, when access to the harbour is 
almost impossible. 

But as soon as spring comes, the flowers peep forth. 
It is not an uncommon sight to see in the Metlakahtla 
gardens anemones, primroses, daisies, and forget-me- 
nots, in full bloom in the first days of May, yea, in 
some earlier years, at the commencement of the second 
half of April, when even the grass in the Middle West 
has not commenced to put on its summer coat. 

Wild flowers, and wild berries, grow profusely all over 
the Island. Among the latter may be mentioned the 
salmonberry, the thimbleberry, the cloudberry, the blue- 
berry, the blue and red huckleberry, and the whortle- 
berry. 

The natives grow in their gardens strawberries, rasp- 
berries, black currants, and gooseberries. There are 



336 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

several crab apple trees and cherry trees. Two years ago, 
scions from apple trees, growing on the west coast of 
Norway, under practically the same climatic conditions, 
were imported and grafted, and are now growing finely, 
transplanted into the native gardens. 

All sorts of vegetables, especially potatoes, are raised 
by the Metlakahtlaus. 

Since a friend of Metlakahtla, some four years ago, 
commenced to give prizes every year for the best flower 
gardens in the village, greater care has been bestowed on 
the gardens. New fences have been procured and neatly 
painted. Flower beds have been laid out in a very ar- 
tistic and original manner, taking all sorts of shapes : — 
Halibut, slarfisb, half-moons, crosses, anchors, and hearts. 
In one garden a battle- ship was built, with a rose-bush 
climbiug up through the smoke-stack, and a little furred 
animal i)eeping up from out the forehold. 

Rose-bushes of all kinds, bearing luscious roses, 
pink, red, white, and yellow, have been procured and 
planted, and the gardens are gay with pansies, tiger- 
lilies, dahlias, and peonies, not to speak of daisies in all 
colours, and forget-me-nots of the most beautiful bright 
blue hue, much bluer than they are ever seen in the 
States. 

The garden which, the first year, received the first 
prize, is the only one at Metlakahtla which can boast of 
a lawn, and a lawn-mower. The lawn party, of which an 
Illustration is found herein, was given in this garden. 

The question will naturally arise, whether the interior 
of the houses of the natives is as attractive as the exterior. 
My answer is, that I suppose there is a great difference 
between the natives, as among white people, with regard 
to cleanliness, neatness, and taste. 

I have seen houses at Metlakahtla where I would not 
particularly care to sit down to eat a meal. But I have 




THE BAXDSTAXD AT METLAKAHTLA 



See page J07 




LAWN PARTY IN AN INDIAN GARDEN 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 337 

also been in houses there where everything was as 
scrupulously clean and neat as in any home of the same 
class of people, — the ordinary working class, — which I 
have ever entered in the States. 

There are carpets on the floor, in most cases lino- 
leum, fair pictures on the wall, good, useful furniture, 
much bric-a-brac on the shelf over the fireplace, curtains 
at tlie wiudows, draperies at the doors, musical instru- 
ments for the girls to X)lay on, while everything, including 
the kitchen, and the kettles and dishes, are scrupulously 
clean. 

The mere fact, that there are at Metlakahtla two pianos 
and forty-six organs will give an idea of the love of 
these people for music. And I might say right here, that 
none of them are bought for ornament : they are faith- 
fully used. Wherever one is found, it is the rule, not the 
exception, that the parents as well as the children, over 
twelve or thirteen years of age, can and do play on it. 

The Metlakahtla brass baud, of thirty pieces, is well 
known all over Southeastern Alaska. In 1904 it, contrary 
to Mr. Duncan's advice, made a concert tour covering 
some of the Pacific Coast cities. Owing to poor manage- 
ment, the boys lost money on the tour, for which they 
had bought new silver-plated instruments, at an expense 
of over 12,000. But those who heard them were full of 
admiration for the native talent. 

In addition to the brass band, there is at Metlakahtla 
a reed band, a string band, an orchestra, a ladies' 
orchestra, and a girls' zobo band. The church choir, 
consisting of twenty -four members, comprises some very 
beautiful voices. A captain of one of the visiting war- 
ships once said to Mr. Duncan, after hearing the congre- 
gational singing in the church on Sunday : 

" Why, you have the voices of j^rima donnas here ! " 

And I am not surprised at the remark. I have heard 



i 



338 



THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 



iu the church in this village voices so sweet and clear, 
that I can well understand that proper cultivation could 
produce a counterpart of a Patti's or a Melba's wonderful 
register. 

Many of the young peoi)le play several different in- 
struments. There are no less than foui' men and one 
woman among them who can handle the pipe organ in 
the church very effectually. Mr. Haldane I have heard 
play on the piano with great skill and feeling difficult 
compositions of Grieg, Tchaikowsky, Brahms, and 
Chopin, which he had never laid eyes on or heard before. 

Mrs. Lucy A. Booth, the best soprano amoug them, 
reads music readily, and sings the score at once without 
practice. The old Tshimsheau love song, which is here 
reproduced, is one of her favourite songs, and was sung 
by her before Mr. Haldane, who wrote the music for me 
from her singing. 



Tsimshean Love Song. 

Moderato. 



^=2 



-e- 

Ah - yee i 



-ft 



--^- 



^ — j 



ah 



Go 



shineth 




ka - yoan 



i^-p^^i^^^^^i^ 



Dim - wil - goi - dix da Ah - ye - ya, Ah - e - yah. 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 



339 




Klan - je-wahlth gool Ah - ye - yi - Ah - ye - ya. 



The canoe song, which is also here reproduced, is an 
old national song of theirs, and was sung for me by John 
Tait. 

Tsimshean Canoe Song. 




In shee 



yeoo boo - wal - sbimt goa- 



i=Lnzza!z;ti^zz: 



H^^ — ^ 



:^=t 



ga - ah - ha. 



In shee gob 



V- 
yeoo hoo 




walshimt goa 



In shee goh 



yeoo ha 



p£Efe 



-(B- 



-P- 



— ^- 



^fefefe-i 



houshimt goa 



ga - yeg - to weah 



lo - weah. 



340 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Almost all Tsimsliean men aud women are born actors 
and speakers. Even in ordinary conversation, their soft 
flowing speech is accompanied by a mimicry and a gestic- 
ulation, which makes one almost feel that one under- 
stands the strange language falling from their lips. 

Public speaking with the men seems to come as natural 
as singing to the women. Their delivery is very effective 
— never ranting, often, indeed, it is pathetic and pleading. 
Their flow of language is continuous. You never hear 
one stutter or stammer or hesitate. They impress you as 
being full of their subject, whether speaking on religious 
or secular matters, and as being earnest and honest in 
what they have to tell you. The modulation is wonder- 
ful. The gesticulation is never extravagant, many times, 
indeed, it is exceedingly persuasive, and always natural. 
The imagery of the native eloquence is something re- 
markable in its simple beauty. It is always strictly cor- 
rect. Let me give one single example, taken from a re- 
ligious exhortation by George Usher, now deceased : 

''Brethren and sisters : ^ You know the eagle aud its 
ways. The eagle flies high. The eagle rests high. It 
always rests on the highest branch of the highest tree." 
We should be like the eagle. We should rest on the 
highest branch of the highest tree. That branch is Jesus 
Christ. When we rest on Him, all our enemies will be 
below and far beneath us." 

Mr. Duncan says that he has never heard even a little 
child among them speak ungrammatically. 

The Tsimsheans are great lovers of all athletic sports, 
an inclination which Mr. Duncan, from an early day, 
thought it well to encourage. The Metlakahtla baseball 
nine is easily the champion team in Southeastern Alaska. 

' Always the order used by them in addressing a mixed audience. 
' This is strictly correct. 




THE YOUNG PEOPLE OF AIETLAKAHTLA IN 1898 




THE MARRIAGE OF HENRY RUDLUN 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 341 

Of late years have been formed the second and third team. 
There is also at Metlakahtla a football team. 

Governor Swineford, soon after the Metlakahtlans 
came to Alaska, encouraged Mr. Duncan in forming and 
drilling a company of volunteers, and promised to furnish 
uniforms and accoutrements. In compliance with this 
request, the ''Metlakahtla Volunteers " were formed, and 
drilled assiduously for more than two years, when the 
Governor informed Mr. Duncan that the judge of the 
district had decided that he could not legally encourage 
a company of volunteers among them, inasmuch as they 
were not citizens. Whereupon, the company was regret- 
fully disbanded. 

I have already, in a footnote, stated that the Tsimshean 
calls his cousins, on the mother's side, brothers and sis- 
ters, and treats them as such. Even to this day no 
Tsimshean, with a proper regard for the ancient rule, 
will marry any one from his mother's clan or totem. 

Do not be surprised, should you visit one of them, if 
he, after having introduced you to his mother, says : 

"And this is my mother." 

And again : 

" And this is also my mother." 

All of his aunts, his mother's sisters, are his mothers. 
That is the explanation. 

Another peculiarity even to this day : A woman is 
most generally not sj)oken of in the village as " Mrs. So 
and So." 

If her first child's name is ''Emma," the name that 
the mother goes by is "Nos Emma" (Emma's mother). 
Her husband generally is "l^ugwahd Emma" (Emma's 
father). If they have no children, but happen to have 
a pet in the family, like a dog, they are spoken of as the 
father and mother of the dog, naming it. 

Mr. and Mrs. Wallace, for instance, being a childless 



342 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

couple, were among the natives generally designated as 
''Nugwahd Mollie" and " Nos Daisy" respectively, as 
they saw Mr. Wallace milk and take care of " Mollie," 
Mr. Duncan's cow, and Mrs. Wallace invariably feeding 
little " Daisy," Mollie' s calf. 

I will give a few of the most common words in 
Tsimsheau : 

"Naxsh" is the common name for either wife or 
husband. 

Grandfather is *' Neyahsh." 

Grandmother, ' ' Nhsteets. ' ' 

•'Nugwahdo" is "my father." "Nugwahdum" is 
"our father." 

A grandchild is ' ' Tclutaghn. ' ' Grandchildren, ' ' Tclu- 
laghut." 

Any one might know that a word like "Tclem-shu- 
mahnak " must mean something real bad. It is Tsim- 
sheau for mother-in-law ! 

" Kemmukum-cheeoost " is their word for the sun, 
" Kemmukum-ahtk " for the moon, the heater of the day 
and of the night. ' ' Kemmuk ' ' is heat ; ' '■ Kemmukum ' ' 
is the adjective " hot." 

So, * ' kemmukum akst ' ' is hot water, while simply 
warm water is " shpoatishkum-akst," and cold water 
"guatkUm akst" from "guat" the word for chill and 
coldness. 

When the Tsimsheau wants to tell you that it is a hot 
day, he will say "kemmukum sha." The expression for 
"all day" or the whole day is "oui' — sha-sha." 

"Katketum coffee," means "strong coffee" ; but 
" katketum-akst " is Tsimsheau for "whiskey." An- 
other name for strong drink is "lamb," really applied 
originally only to rum. 

The Tsimsheau calls spring "kohim," summer, 
^ Prououuced like the Freuch word for "yes." 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 343 

"sliooud," autumn, '^fliskoot," and winter, ''koam- 
shum. ' ' 

When a Tsimshean wants to be very polite in greeting 
you, he will say : '' Endohwillahwabn," "How do you 
do ? " But ordinarily he will simj)ly inquire, " Athlahm- 
willah wahni," "Are you well?" and you may with 
great propriety answer: " Ahmwillahwahloo," "I am 
well." They have no word for "thanks" or "thank 
you." 

There is one word for an adjective in the singular, and 
a different word for its plural. For instance, while hot 
water is " kemmukum-akst," as stated, hot i^otatoes are 
' ' lemmukum shoosheed. " " Strong man " is " katketum 
youat ; " strong men, " katleletum youatah." 

The same is the case with the verbs. For instance, 
"stand" in the singular is "hightk" ; in the plural 
* ' makst. " "I stand " is " hightkahnoo " ; "he stands, ' ' 
"hightka" ; "we stand," "makshum" ; " they stand," 
"makshadat." 

I will here subjoin, for the benefit of the reader, the 
Lord's Prayer, and the Apostolic Benediction in Tsim- 
shean, given in the Metlakahtla Church Manual : 



The Lord^s Prayer 

" Wee -Nahgwah-dum koo tsim lachahgah, IS'clootiksh 
ah N'oo-wahut. Shahaksheah ntsabbany . Shah-koad-kan 
tum wahl ah halle-tsohamee, Ne-wahltkah tsim lachah-gah. 
Kinnam klahgam ah shah quah ahm shkabboo wenayah. 
Kamkoadan ah naht-ahtackamee, newahl-dah dee willah 
kam koadamum ah haht-ach-ah-deah gam. Killohmdzah 
tah-taink umt shpiet t'in shpahlt koadumt ; addah mah 
al tillahmautkum ah haht-achahdat ; Ah will n'tsab- 
bandat, addah nahkat kettandat, tilth n'cloadant, addah 
tum clah-willah wahl. Amen." 



344 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

The AimstoUc Benediction 
*'Nah alimshkb Meyahmini Jesus Christ turn klah 
willah hoksh-kli-deah gam, tilth uee sheepanshk Shi- 
mauket kah lachahgah kauel Ahmtkh Hietk. Amen." 

A Tsimshean has a superstitious aversion to pronoun- 
cing his own name, and will never give it, unless it is ab- 
solutely necessary. If two or more children are together, 
and you should ask the name of one of them, he will look 
foolish, as if he did not understand you, and then throw 
a beseeching glance at the others, one of whom will, after 
the proper pause, helx^ him out of the difiiculty by giving 
his name. The first one will very likely return the favour 
for the other. 

The same superstition prevents a parent from giving 
the age of a child, or the date of its birth. To figure out 
anything like this might make the child die. 

It is very touching to see these people's affection for 
their children. It is carried to such an extent that they 
often are in danger of spoiling them. When a child is 
sick, and Mr. Duncan, on inquiry, finds out that it has 
been given something to eat which it ought not to have 
had, and asks the mother: "What made you let her 
have that?" the answer invariably is: ''She wanted 
it, sir." That seems to settle the matter in the mother's 
mind. 

An echo of the old potlatch practice may be found in 
the peculiarity of the Metlakatlan, when giving you a 
present, always looking for a present in retui'u. They 
keep strict account of their gifts, and of their expecta- 
tions. 

An old man one day came to Mr. Duncan, and asked 
his help to collect twenty dollars from a party in British 
Columbia. Upon inquiry as to the nature of the debt, 
Mr. Duncan ascertained that the old man, thirty years 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 345 

ago, gave the woman's motlier, since deceased, on her 
wedding day, a cloak of the value of twenty dollars, and 
as the mother never had given him any equivalent return 
present, he perceived that he now had a valid claim for 
the value of his gift against the daughter, who, on her 
mother's decease, had become possessed of her property. 

As to the Metlakahtlans' faces and general appearance, 
I prefer to let the photographs given in the present book 
speak for themselves. 

As to their manner of .dress, it may be said that the 
men are clothed just about like men of the same class in 
the States. The women, especially the young women, are 
perhaps a little inclined to wear gaudier hats, and a little 
brighter shirt-waists than white people of the same social 
condition ; but not much more so. Many of them exhibit 
very good taste, indeed. The very old women generally 
wear shawls, and on their heads black silk kerchiefs, 
tied under the chin, which give them a very sedate and 
modest appearance. 

It is remarkable how well most of these people, both 
men and women, carry their age. Women, whom at first 
sight I should have judged to be young women of between 
thirty and forty, on inquiry turned out to be grandmoth- 
ers of over fifty. I know a number of men, over sixty 
years of age, without a gray hair in their heads, and who 
easily would pass as being under forty. Gray hairs are a 
matter of very rare occurrence among them anyhow. 
Only now and then will you see a person of very ad- 
vanced age with a gray head. 

The men have, as a general thing, not very much of a 
hirsute adornment. Now and then we find a scanty 
moustache. There are only two full beards in the village 
among the natives, and they are not of a very luxurious 
growth. I have heard this explained by a custom prev- 
alent, more especially in earlier times, of pulling out the 



346 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

hairs of the face as they were first showing them- 
selves. 

It is remarkable to see the smallness of the hands and 
feet, especially of the women. Ajiother noticeable feature 
about these people is their well-preserved teeth. While 
the teeth are generally ground down, especially among 
the older people, more than they would be among the 
whites, there are very few mouths with decaying teeth. 

There is still more interference on the part of parents 
and relatives in the way of match-making than there 
ought to be, but Mr. Duncan has, to a great extent, done 
away with it. When he has an idea that a woman is 
unduly influenced to marry some one, he acts as he did 
in the case of a young woman whose i)arents asked him 
to marry her to an old man. He called her alone to his 
office, and asked her : 

" Do you want to marry that old man ? " 

'' My parents, sir " 

'^ I did not ask if your parents wanted you to. I knew 
they did. What I want to know is if you want it ? " 

" They say I must, sir. They have promised him." 

" Do you love him ? " 

"No, sir." 

" Do you like anybody else % " 

"I don't know, sir." This with quite an amount of 
hesitation. 

" Well, you don't like him, in any event? " 

"No, I do not." 

" Well, then, you shall not marry him, either." 

So that match, which evidently was not made in 
heaven, was broken off. 

I need not say that divorces are wholly unknown in 
Metlakahtla. 

Practically all of the natives at Metlakalitla are com- 
mon workmen, fishermen, trappers, loggers, and workers 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 347 

in the sawmill or cannery. But some of them are 
carrying on a private business of their own. Thus, 
there are five small native stores, and two restaurants in 
the village, two blacksmiths' shops, two silversmiths, two 
photographers, two expert wood- carvers, several carpen- 
ters, six or seven boat builders, and one young native 
man operates a Eemington typewriter. 

A good many of the older women make baskets and 
mats out of cedar bark, for the tourists. The patterns 
for the mats are quite varied, and many of them are very 
neat and attractive. 

In basket- making, the Tsimshean women have, how- 
ever, not acquired either the dexterity or the taste, nor 
do they use the fine materials of the Thlingit and Haida 
women, especially the latter, who are experts in this art. 

When the Tsimsheans came to Alaska, their convey- 
ance on the water was the canoe. Mr, Duncan says that, 
years ago, he counted, at one time, twenty-eight new 
canoes building on the beach. A canoe is now a curiosity, 
and is no longer employed at Metlakahtla. The natives 
have learned to build the white man's boat, and prefer it, 
as beiug both stronger, cheaper, and safer. 

The Columbia Eiver sailing-boat has been the style of 
late years, and there are not fewer than thirty-five of 
them owned in the village. But very lately, it seems, 
that the gasoline launch is coming to the front, also 
among the natives at this place. There are now nine 
gasoline launches owned at Metlakahtla — all, with the ex- 
ception of two, of quite a good size. Most of them are 
each thirty-five or forty feet long, with from seven to 
eight foot beam, and supplied with good and reliable 
engines. 

It is on the water that these natives are especially 
masters of the situation. Their nautical skill is marvel- 
lous, while their knowledge of the channels eveiywhere 



348 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

iu Soiitheasteru Alaska is well-nigh perfect. They use, 
but do not need, charts. In their opinion, there are still 
too many errors in them — too many rocks and reefs not 
yet located. And they are right. 

I went in the Summer of 1908 on a cruise of five hun- 
dred miles with two of these natives, in waters wholly 
new to one of them. The other had not visited them for 
over twenty years. But his memory never failed him. 
And he had no use for my chart, after he found that a 
certain rock, awash at high tide, and which he had told 
me about, was not marked on the map. Iu ten minutes 
we came to the place. And there was the rock all right, 
as it had been twenty years ago. 

To my surprise I found that the little craft was not 
furnished with a compass. And still we always found 
our way over large expanses of open water, as well as in 
narrow channels, where the tide-swirls were running wild. 

Good sailors, good fishers, and trappers, good work- 
men, and even good mechanics, as they are, these natives 
all seem to be lacking in executive ability. And as busi- 
ness men, they are not a success. Several enterprises 
undertaken by some of them, away from the island, have 
been sigual failures. So have some of their small stores, 
and widows and others who confided to them their little 
savings, under hope and promise of big returns, have not 
only failed to harvest the profits, but have lost their 
capital invested, as well, and this through no dishonesty 
of purijose on the part of the enterprisers, but wholly for 
lack of business energy and ability to carry on the under- 
taking on proper business lines. 

Another fault with a good many of these people is 
their inability to appreciate the necessity of exactness, 
accuracy, and completeness. A native seldom is on time 
for an appointment. When a house is built, there is 
generally something left unfinished. I am inclined to 



FLOTSAM AND JETSAM 349 

think tliat these are defects which a more finished educa- 
tion, and a generation or two of business training, will 
wholly eradicate. 

The fact remains, that these natives, in the way of 
work, seem to be able to do everything they see others do, 
at least when properly instructed. That they are able to 
complete such complex building undertakings as the two 
largo churches built by Mr. Duncan at both of the Metla- 
kahllas, with the limited aj)paratus and appliances at 
hand, without a single mishap or accident, certainly speaks 
volumes for their ability as mere workmen and mechanics. 

A stranger cannot fail to be impressed by their excess- 
ive politeness and good manners. They always knock 
at the door before entering. They always remove their 
caps or hats when coming into Mr. Duncan's ofSce, and 
address him with marked deference. 

To ladies, and to white men, whom they know and 
respect, they invariably doff their hats on the street. 
The other day I noticed the amiable clerk in Mr. Dun- 
can's store, a man over sixty years old, respectfully doff 
his cap in saying good-bye to a little golden-haired white 
girl, only about two years old, who had just bought five 
cents' worth of candy from him. 

Dropping into Mr. Duncan's store one day in August, 
1908, I found several natives present, listening to a 
phonograph, which was reeling off some Columbia rec- 
ords. I was engaged in an interesting conversation 
with the Eev. Mr. Tomlinson, and paid no particular at- 
tention to what tune was played until I saw the hats and 
caps of all these uncouth labourers and fishermen come 
off quickly. I looked up in surprise. Then it struck 
me that it was "The Star-Spangled Banner" that was 
being played. These natives, who were not yet American 
citizens, had shamed me in paying homage to our country 
and its flag. 



XL 

THE METLAKAHTLA INDUSTRIES 

ME. DUNCAN'S books show that the sum total 
of the business transacted iu his industrial 
enterprises at Metlakahtla, covering the store, 
the sawmill, and the cannery, from the beginning, in 
1887, up to the first of July, 1908, was not less than 
$900,937.31. 

From these gross proceeds he has, during the same 
time, paid iu wages to the natives the sum of $481,043. 

The difference between these sums does not, of course, 
represent the profits of the enterprise. Out of the gross 
proceeds, the stock in the store, every year renewed, 
must be paid. Also tin and soldering materials for the 
millions of cans for the cannery, boats, nets, machinery, 
lacquering materials, and labels, heavy freight bills, in- 
surance of the pack at Seattle (no insurance premiums 
being paid at Metlakahtla), and a liberal commission to 
the house handling and selling the pack. 

During all of these years Mr. Duncan has not only 
been the preacher and pastor, and, most of the time, the 
only physician of the village, without pay or hire, and, 
to a certain extent at least, schoolmaster of the young, 
but also the manager, bookkeeper, timekeeper, general 
overseer and cashier of this extensive business. And in 
addition to all this, he is the counsellor of every man, 
woman and child, the arbiter in all their little troubles, 
the comforter in their sorrows and adversity, the adviser 
on all matters of policy, economy, and health, both pri- 
vate and public. 

350 



THE METLAKAHTLA INDUSTRIES 351 

The sawmill aud planing-mill, by employing loggers, 
as well as sawyers aud mill hands, have contributed a good 
deal towards furnishing many in the village with their 
means of subsistence. But it is on the cannery that Mr. 
Duncan mainly relies for employing the idle hands of the 
village at a fair compensation. 

It is a great pity that this business can be carried on 
only for a short time during the year. 

The canning process is practically limited to two 
months, July and August, when the salmon are running, 
as it is called. 

For the benefit of those who know nothing about the 
life and habits of the salmon, let me explain : 

The salmon is hatched in some fresh-water lake, the 
head waters of some little stream, where the spawn is 
deposited. After living for some months in this lake, 
the young salmon gradually works its way down the 
stream towards the ocean, and disappears. No one 
knows where it goes to, or where it dwells. Only this is 
known : in four years, it attains full size. It then re- 
turns, by thousands, yea — by millions, to the same 
stream, leading to the same lake where it was ouce 
hatched.' It gradually works its way up the stream, 
jumping up the waterfalls from rock to rock, often 
leaping as high as seven feet in one jump. Some- 
times the first effort fails. Then it tries, and tries again, 
until successful. Onward and upward it progresses, until 
it reaches the breeding ground in its native lake, sore and 

' How it is able to find the exact way, through thousands of miles of 
ocean, how it can locate the stream whence it came, how it can dis- 
tinguish it from others just like it, no one has attempted to explain, 
but it is a settled fact. Each stream in Alaska has its particular sal- 
mon coming to it, and up it, and no other. Young salmon have been 
marked, and found to return to their native lake. Never, in a single 
instance, has a marked salmon been found in the wrong stream. What 
a lesson of the guiding force of an almighty power ! 



352 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

torn, dishevelled and disfigured from its rocky path, from 
its enervating, exhausting efforts to get there. 

When arriving at the spawning ground, the first work 
undertaken is that of the male. Burrowing with his nose 
and x)ushiug his body again and again into the sand, he 
makes deep furrows, so, after a while, the spawning 
ground looks as if a i)lough had gone over it. Then 
comes the turn of the female. She places herself in the 
furrow, and deposits the spawn. The male then fertilizes 
it. This done, she covers it, with her wriggling tail, 
with sand. The life-work of the salmon is now ended, 
and it is ready to die. 

These lakes soon become filled with putrid fish, emit- 
ting such an odour that it is almost impossible to ap- 
proach them. Some of the salmon have life enough left 
to wriggle themselves down the stream, but most of these 
die before they reach the ocean. Those that do get back 
die there and are washed ashore by the tide. 

It is when approaching these, their native, streams, in 
large shoals, the salmon are caught in nets or seines, or 
trajjs, by the fishermen, and brought to the canneries. 
Some time after they have touched fresh water, varying 
according to the distance they have to travel up-stream, 
they become soft and flabby, and unfit to eat. 

In the different streams, the estuaries of which the 
cannery at Metlakahtla draws upon for its salmon, there 
are four different kinds of salmon running. The red 
salmon, the sock eye (in Tsimshean "mehsho"), the 
medium red salmon, the cohoe (in Tsimshean "ghua"), 
the pink salmon, or the humjiback (in Tsimshean " stah- 
maun"), and the white salmon, called "chum," or dog 
salmon (in Tsimshean "kineesh"). 

The latter, thougli a very good salmon, but not so fat 
as the others, is put up only to a very limited extent at 
Metlakahtla. Japan has been the single market for it, 



THE METLAKAHTLA INDUSTRIES S53 

until lately when it has, with considerable success, been 
inh-oduced m the South, where it seems to 8^1^^ 

ZyLt' """''* ""''^^ ^ "'' ^^'^ preferirto an 

The first work done in a cannery is in the spring and 

c^naX'TtL"'","''' — —f-tured"^ /s the 
2k oonoo c '"''"'J"^<'7 "t Metlakahtla enables it to 
pack 20,000 cases of salmon, consisting of fortv-eifrht 
ponud cans each, nearly one million tin^ans mu^st fl." 
be made, also 20,000 boxes of planed boards. This work 
employs a force of abont one hundred men and boys for 
about two months, at wages varying fronr one to two 
dollars per day. " i-wu 

Immediately after the Fourth of July, the fishermen are 
« out with their boats and nets, and the steamers 
make their daily rounds of from forty to seventy miles, 
o gather up the salmon catch, and bring it to the can^ 
nery. There it first goes through the hands of the 
cutters, who remove the head, tail, and fins, and dis- 
embowel the fish. It is by them turned o^er to the 
cleaners, who clean it thoroughly in two running waters 
whereupon it is cut up into proper lengths on a machine,' 
and delivered m trays to the women, who put it in cans! 
The cans after being filled, are wiped clean, and a spring 
cover put on them. Then the cover is soldered, and the 
cans pu in the boiler for the first cooking. After this 
first cooking, a hole is punched in each can, to allow all 
air to escape. Then the hole is immediately filled up 
again with solder, and the can replaced in the boiler for 
Its second cooking. After being thoroughly cleaned, and 
all grease and oil removed, they are allowed to cool. 
Ihey are then thoroughly tested by experts, who tap each 
can, and by the sound can determine if there is a leak in 
any one can. All ^Meaks" are set aside, and carefully 
examined till the leak is found, when it is closed with 



354 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

solder. In most canneries the cans are now at once 
lacquered, labelled, and marketed. Not so at Metla- 
kaiitla. The lacquer will often temporarily close a leak. 
After a while, however, the leak reappears, and the re- 
sult is a more or less spoilt can of salmon, when it reaches 
the consumer. 

In order to obviate this, the cans at Metlakahtla are, 
after cooling, piled up till the season is over. Then, 
they are again tested, new leaks closed up, and then, and 
only then, are they lacquered and labelled, put into cases 
and made ready for the steamer, to be by it carried to 
the commission house in Seattle (Kelly, Clark & Com- 
pany), who finally dispose of them to the wholesale trade. 

The entire work in the cannery at Metlakahtla is done 
by the Indians, under the constant supervision of Mr. 
Duncan from early morn till late at night. The people 
who do the work are scrupulously clean : none other are 
allowed to handle the salmon. Tables, floors, and trays 
are scoured and cleaned thoroughly every day, so that 
after a day's work is done, one, on peeking into the can- 
nery, would not know but that it was one's own kitchen 
he was poking his nose into. 

There are canneries where putrid salmon is put into 
cans. The Chinese are under contract to fill them, and 
they have no very bothersome consciences. Of course, 
Mr. Duncan could not tolerate such conduct for a mo- 
ment in his cannery. 

Ouce in a while, one comes across a sick salmon. This 
can always be discovered by the touch of the human 
hand. In most canneries the filling is done by machinery, 
which of course takes the salmon, whether it be sick or 
well. Not so at Metlakahtla. Any piece from a sick 
salmon is at once discarded, and goes into a pail under 
the table. 

Then, again, a time comes when the salmon becomes 



1 



THE METLAKAHTLA INDUSTRIES 355 

flabby, and not in prime condition. This is towards 
the end of the season, when the salmon is running the 
strongest. As soon as this is the case, Mr. Duncan 
closes his cannery. Not another salmon is allowed to be 
canned. I have known seasons when he closed his can- 
nery quite fourteen days earlier than any one of the other 
canneries in that part of the world. 

It is his ambition that every can of Metlakahtla salmon 
shall be up to its reputation, as the best salmon canned 
in Alaska. 

We can form an idea of the honesty and care with 
which his (Mr. Duncan's) business is transacted all 
through, when we hear that every can when filled is 
placed upon a pair of scales, on the other scale of which 
is a tin can with a pound weight in it. Every can must 
tip that scale. If it does not, it is returned to the filler 
for more salmon, and then weighed again before it is ac- 
cepted. 

He is bound to give an honest pound of salmon in every 
can. There is old genuine Yorkshire business honesty 
for you ! 

Some years ago, a friend of mine from Minneapolis 
came to Metlakahtla on the Spokane, after having made 
a tour of Alaska. After we had been around and in- 
spected the buildings and the church, he mentioned that 
after having visited the salmon canneries he had made 
up his mind never to eat another meal of canned salmon. 
He could not do it. 

" Have you been through the cannery here ? " 

'^No." 

I took him along. It so happened that the entire 
force was at work, and I let him thoroughly inspect the 
whole process from beginning to end. When we went 
down to the dock, he said : 

" I am glad you showed me this. I will make an ex- 



356 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

ception of Metlakalitla salmon. But I will eat no 
other." 

Neither do I. 

The brands manufactured at Metlakahtla are : 

1. The " Mission Brand " (red salmon). 

2. The ''Metlakahtla Brand" (medium red salmon). 

3. The '' Buckle Brand " (pink salmon). 

They have all on the label somewhere : ' ' Packed by 
the Metlakahtla Industrial Co., at Metlakahtla, Alaska," 
as the label of the old corporation has not been changed. 

The total pack, from 1891 to the end of the season of 
1907, was 247,344 cases, or nearly twelve million cans, a 
manufactured product from over six thousand tons of 
salmon. 

The fishermen employed by Mr. Duncan, and they are 
of course all Metlakahtlans, are paid by the fish, and can 
earn from three to five dollars per day. 

I have seen as many as ten thousand salmon handled in 
one day, the last of the salmon being ready for the first 
boiling in ten hours. 

The women filling cans are also paid by the piece, and 
can make from two to two dollars and fifty cents a day. 

The cutters, the cleaners, the men around the boilers, 
and the testers are paid wages of from two to three dollars 
per day. The women who wipe the cans get one dollar 
per day, the girls, who put the covers on them, an equal 
sum, and boys working at different jobs, piling cans, etc., 
from fifty to seventy-five cents per day. 

As very often three and four members of a family are 
employed, the total earnings are quite a bit, even if the 
season is short. 

The total number on the pay-roll, during the canning 
season proper, varies from one hundred and eighty to two 
hundred and fifty. In 1908, it was only one hundred and 
eighty-five. 



THE METLAKAHTLA INDUSTRIES 357 

Until the pack is sold, or at least until New Year, Mr. 
Duncan pays his employees only in coupons, good at his 
general store. At New Year, any balance coming to 
them is paid in cash. 

This year he has promised his people to introduce the 
profit-sharing element in his cannery business. If there 
is any profit from the pack, which is not a certainty, by 
any means, as for three years in succession, some years 
ago, the business proved an absolute loss, he will after 
the season distribute one-half of the net profits between 
the cannery employees, including the fishermen, in pro- 
portion to the wages earned by them already. 

As all the inhabitants of Metlakahtla cannot find em- 
ployment at its industries, a number seek work at other 
places, at canneries and sawmills, especially during the 
summer season. "What Mr. Duncan is looking for, and 
hopes to accomplish in time, is the operation of so many 
additional industries, and such extension of those already 
going, that the whole population can find steady employ- 
ment on the island all the year round. 

Small as their wages are, and limited as the capacity 
for employment is, yet a good mauy of the Metlakahtlans 
have managed to save quite a little sum from their earn- 
ings. One of their number, not long ago, consulted me 
in regard to the most profitable investment of $2, 000, and 
several of them, to my knowledge, have a few hundred 
dollars laid by. 



XLI 

THE "CHRISTIAN CHURCH" 

AS the life of the Metlakahtlaus centres round, and 
has its foundation in, the religion of the Christ, 
so, naturally, every interest in the little village 
clusters around, and culminates in the church. It nat- 
urally dominates all and everything. 

The official name of the church of Metlakahtla is 
simply " The Christian Church of Metlakahtla." It and 
its members belong to no sect or denomination. It is 
strictly an undenominational, evangelical church. 

Its whole creed is found on the beautifully inlaid pul- 
pit, on the ribbon held in the bill of the white dove : 
''God is love," and in the glad Gospel message sur- 
mounting its preaching platform : 

''The angel saith unto them : ' Fear not, for behold I 
bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all 
people : For unto you is born this day, in the City of 
David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.' " 

In this pulpit is welcomed any evangelical preacher, 
and from its platform have spoken to the people of 
Metlakahtla Bishop Eowe, the efficient and indefatigable 
head of the Episcopal Church of Alaska, as well as 
Methodist, Baptist, Congregational, Presbyterian, and 
Lutheran ministers and laymen. 

The only condition exacted is that they preach no 
"ism," but only the pure, simple Gospel message of 
"Jesus, the Christ crucified." 

It may, in this connection, be interesting to read Mr. 
Duncau's views on the propriety and expediency of non- 
sectarianism in heathen missions. He says : 

358 




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THE "CHRISTIAN CHURCH" 359 

"I hold that it would be well if all missionaries, on leaving 
their several societies to preach the Gospel to the heathen, 
would leave their respective church colours behind them, and 
take their stand in heathen lands under but one and the same 
banner — the banner of Christ. 

" If this were done, we would, I believe, not only have less 
strife and rivalry, ill-success and hoUowness, in mission work, 
but we would have more reality, more progress, and more 
victory, 

"Divisions among religious teachers are sad stumbling- 
blocks to the heathen. Bad enough to have divisions at home, 
but far worse to carry them abroad, to fetter and worry new- 
converts, while in the weakness of their pupilage. 

" If, however, denominational differences must ultimately 
arise among the new converts, to divide them, as they have 
divided us, then let, at least, such divisions be inaugurated by 
themselves, and be attributable to diversity of thought and 
choice, as with us. As far as we are concerned, let them 
remain united, as long as they can, and divide only when 
necessity from within demands it. 

' ' It seems to me worthy of the best sympathies of the Christians 
at home to foster the desire of newly-formed congregations in 
heathen lands for church unity in their respective countries, 
and nothing less than simple, unmitigated cruelty to try 
to divide them for the glory of any church denomination or 
party." 

These were his sentiments when he first left England 
fifty years ago. He was animated by them in his opposi- 
tion to clapping the manacles of the Church of England 
on his new converts, and to this day he is true to the con- 
victions of his youth, and has faithfully carried them out 
in the church formation, rather than church organization, 
at Metlakahtla. 

Three times a day every Sabbath do the church bells 
of Metlakahtla call upon the people to attend divine 
service. 

The morning service is at 11 : 30. It is a great sight 
Sunday morning to see the walks black with people. 
From all directions they are coming — men, women, and 



360 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

children. As tlie people are entering the church, with 
solemn mien and stolid faces, while the bells still are 
pealing out their message of invitation to one and all, a 
prelude is played on the fine pipe organ, thus far the only 
one in Alaska. As the last sound of the bell is dying 
away in the stillness and peace of the i)lace, IMr. Duncan, 
clothed in a black Prince Albert coat, without even a 
white tie, or any other clerical vestment or adornment, 
ascends the preaching platform, and kneels down for 
silent prayer behind the reading desk. 

A hymn is then sung in Tsimshean by the congrega- 
tion, which always rises in singing. Thereupon, Mr. 
Duncan, kneeling in the pulpit, after saying in English 
" Let us j)ray," offers an earnest prayer in Tsimshean, the 
congregation all kneeling in their seats. 

At the conclusion of this jDrayer, which usually takes 
about five minutes, the audience joins with him in the 
Lord's Prayer, also in Tsimshean. Thereupon, he closes 
with the Apostolic benediction. The congregation now 
sings a soug from Pentecostal Hymns Xos. 1 and 2, 
whereupon the church choir, consisting of twenty-four 
excellent voices, gives an anthem. 

Mr. Duncan rises, approaches the reading desk, and 
again kneels down for a very short, simple prayer in 
English, the audience also again kneeling. 

He thereupon reads, in English, the text, which in the 
forenoon always is the luternational Sunday-school 
lesson, the audience following him in their Bibles. Then 
he begins his sermon, always in Tsimshean. He first 
paraphrases the portion of the Scriptures read, in Tsim- 
shean, taking pains to make it very plain to his people, 
and then gives them the message which God's "Word has 
for them on that day. 

The benign face of the inspired teacher fairly beams, 
as in a solemn benediction. It seems to be lit up by the 



THE "CHRISTIAN CHUECH" 361 

light from heaven, and as he explains and reproves, con- 
soles and praises, and points to God's help, the animated 
face and his impressive gesticulation change, so that 
one, even though not understanding a word of the lan- 
guage, seems to be able to follow him in his exposition, 
and after listening to him one well understands the won- 
derful hold he has on his people, and how they never tire 
of hearing him expound the Gospel message. 

In fact, so pronounced are his earnestness, sincerity, 
and solemnity in speech, as well as in prayer, coupled 
with the most serene simplicity, that I was not surprised 
to hear Mr. Wallace remark that he felt more edified by 
hearing him in Tsimshean, a language he did not under- 
stand, than by hearing many ministers preach in 
English. 

After a sermon, of about three-quarters of an hour, he 
again says: ''Let us pray," and all kneel for a short 
prayer, at the conclusion of which, he, as well as the 
audience, remains kneeling for a fraction of a minute, in 
silent prayer. The audience now files out, quietly and 
solemnly, with the Word of God, so forcibly imiDrinted on 
their minds and in their hearts, reflected in their solemn 
faces. 

There is no chatting, no visiting among these church- 
members, either at the church or on the way home. You 
can see in their faces, and in their reverential demeanour, 
that God's Word has not been spoken to them in vain. 
There is no room for levity. 

It is Mr. Duncan's plan that nothing shall intervene 
after the Word has been sent home to their hearts. For 
that reason, he never allows, at the morning service, any 
closing hymn. 

It was this same idea which, when he at an early day 
itinerated around, and preached the Gospel in their differ- 
ent villages, caused him to order his men to have his 



362 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

canoe ready, so that he could start immediately after the 
service had closed. He did uot want to give them any 
opportunity for familiarity, or for fraternizing with him. 
He wanted ' ' to leave the message, and remove the mes- 
senger" from their minds. 

In the afternoon, at 3 : 30, the natives have their own 
service in the church, while Mr. Duncan gathers around 
him, in the schoolroom, the smaller children, all under 
twelve years of age, to a number all the way from ninety 
to one hundred and fifty, according to the season, and 
personally conducts their Sabbath-school service. 

On Saturday night he always meets, for an hour, the 
Sunday-school teachers, and goes over with them the les- 
son for the next day, explaining and expounding, and 
advising them how best to teach it, so that they are duly 
prepared for their duties the next day. 

The natives' own service is conducted by one of the 
elders, chosen by his fellows for each service. The leader 
gives out a hymn from Pentecostal Hymns, and offers a 
prayer in Tsimsheau. The classes then separate, and the 
lesson is studied by each. (A photograph of the women 
Sunday-school teachers at Metlakahtla is found on a near- 
by page.) 

Upon reconvening, the leader makes a short address on 
the golden text, also in Tsimshean. Another hymn is 
sung in English, and the meeting closes with prayer by 
one of the other elders, only to reconvene again in a few 
minutes for what is called the ''Young People's Gospel 
Hymn Song Service." 

And now the Tsimsheau love of song and music has a 
feast. It is most edifying to see with what vim and feel- 
ing they sing, one after the other, their favourite Gospel 
hymns. And at almost every service a new one is added 
to the list, which makes their hearts swell, and their voices 
rise mightily to the throne of God in song and praise. 




< 



C/5 

X 
u 



THE "CHRISTIAN CHURCH" 363 

At 7 : 30 the church bell again calls these devoted peo- 
ple, this time to the evening service, at which there is the 
singing of a hymn in English, a prayer by Mr. Duncan 
in Tsimshean, and a short address in the same language 
on some subject selected by him from the Scriptures. 
Then the doxology is sung, and one of the elders, selected 
for that purjDose, while all the congregation is kneeling, 
from his pew leads in a closing prayer. The congrega- 
tion solemnly and reverently disperses, and the Sabbath 
at Metlakahtla is over. 

Later on, one hears the organs in the different houses and 
Gospel hymns continue to be sung in the homes until ten 
o'clock, which is the recognized hour of rest in the village. 

On Sunday evenings Mr. Duncan generally takes up a 
series of discourses. The summer of 1908 it was the para- 
bles which furnished the theme. 

On Wednesday evening is held the mid-week service, 
attended by all of the more earnest Christians at the place, 
for of course there are here, as everywhere, those who are 
more earnest in their Christian life, and those who are lag- 
ging behind. It lasts about an hour, and is opened with 
one of the old, well-known hymns in English. A short 
prayer and address in Tsimshean follow, then the closing 
prayer by one of the natives. For a couple of years the 
'^ Epistles of St. Peter" were taken up at these meetings, 
then the "Psalms." In the year 1908, the miracles of 
Christ furnished the subject for devotional consideration. 

Mr. Duncan has never at any time made any transla- 
tion of the Bible, or any part of it, into their language. 
He has such pious veneration for the old King James 
version, that he can only think of an attempt to transfer 
it into their tongue as an absolute mutilation of the Holy 
Word. 

Bishop Ridley, at an early day, with the assistance of 
a female native, made a rather abortive attempt at 



364 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

translatiug into Tsiinshean the Book of Common Prayer, 
but Mr. Duueaii claims that the translation is more than 
useless. Half of the time it is absolutely meaningless to 
the Tsimsheans, and what they can understand of it par- 
takes rather of the ridiculous than of the sublime, in its 
awkward expressions of the holy thoughts. 

Several natives at Metlakahtla, who have tried to use 
the book, fully agree with him in his views in this regard. 

Any one looking at the illustration on a near-by page, 
of the interior of the church at Metlakahtla, will undoubt- 
edly believe that the large book above the preaching plat- 
form inscribed ' ' Holy Bible ' ' is carved in wood. From 
whatever point in the pews it is looked at, it has all the 
appearance of a book perfectly carved in wood. But this 
is an optical illusion, caused by the native painter's art, 
and makes it really a greater work of art than if it had 
been carved, for it is nothing but a flat piece of board, 
properly painted and shaded. 

The paintings in the two fields of the front wall, like 
everything in the church, except the pipe organ and the 
gas fixtures, are the work of the natives. One depicts the 
announcement by the angels to the shepherds at Bethle- 
hem of the joyous event of the birth of the Christ; the 
other the visit of the Magi to the Christ child. In the 
background, bathed in the rays of the star, loom up the 
walls and the houses of the little city of Bethlehem. 

It should be noted that neither of the natives, who have 
l^roduced these works, have had any instruction in paint- 
ing, or, for that, in drawing. Their handiwork is simply 
the result of the raw native talent. The inlaid work on 
the pulpit is very tasteful. 

In the rear of the church, near the entrance door, is 
fastened on the wall a memorial tablet in polished mar- 
ble, recording the loss to the church of David Leask, for 
many years one of its elders, and already frequently men- 



THE "CHRISTIAN CHURCH" 365 

tioned in these pages as one of Mr. Duncan's most valued 
assistants among the natives. 

Undoubtedly it will be interesting to see what stand 
Mr. Duncan and his church now take on the administra- 
tion of the two sacraments, so long the subject of vital 
difference between him and the Society. 

As I have felt that on this subject I should, if possible, 
secure Mr. Duncan's views in his own language, I some 
time ago wrote and asked him to give them to me, and I 
here reproduce his answer to my letter, prefacing it, how- 
ever, with the remark that some short time after remov- 
ing to American Alaska, when he thought the people had 
attained the proper understanding of its importance, he 
introduced among them the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per, in the modified form in which it is now administered, 
and that he invariably uses the unfermented wine. 

It may here be stated that the main reason why he 
never would consent to the administration of this sacra- 
ment among the natives, under the form and ritual pre- 
scribed by the Anglican Church, and by a priest arrayed 
in his robes and vestments, was that he was afraid, and 
certainly not without good reason, that it would too much 
partake of, and remind, the Indians of the powers and 
practices of their old medicine-men, who, apparelled in 
their blankets, were nothing but ordinary men with or- 
dinary power ; but upon assuming their robes, head- 
dresses, necklaces, and rattles, became, in the Indian 
mind, endowed with superhuman, miraculous ability. 

Mr. Duncan says : 

"As I believe that faith in Christ should precede baptism, 
and as there is no definite command or warrant to baptize chil- 
dren — we do not have infant baptism. 

"I know that some good people regard the ceremony of in- 
fant baptism as an act of dedicating their children to God. To 
this I reply, we can dedicate assuredly to God what will obey 



366 



THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 



our will, but not that which can resist our will, having a will 
of its own. King David of old could, and did, dedicate his 
gold to God, and the gold was used for God's temple, but, if 
he ever undertook to dedicate Absalom to God, he lived to see 
and mourn over his failure. Each individual has a will, which 
none, not even father or mother, can command, but only the 
possessor — and, without the exercise of that will, religious 
service is but mockery, 

" What, however, we can do for children, is what was done 
for the children who were brought to Christ and received His 
blessing. The disciples at that time were baptizing more peo- 
ple than John the Baptist, we are told, but, surely, if children 
were being admitted, as well as adults, the disciples would not 
have been guilty of the mistake they made when they 're- 
buked those that brought the children.' 

" We too can bring children to Christ for His blessing (for 
He is present now with His Church — where two or three are 
met together in His name), and this we do at Metlakahtla. 

" Generally, on the first Sunday of the year, the parents, after 
a meeting with me, in which the importance of this step is im- 
pressed on them, bring those of their children born during the 
past year to church at our morning service. A special prayer 
is offered to God in behalf of these little ones, and each child 
thereupon receives a card to commemorate the occasion, as 
follows : 



Our Lord Jesus Christ said: 
come unto Me." 



" Suffer little children to 



You.. 



.wken an infant 



were brotight into the Church at Metla- 
kahtla^ Alaska, on the day of.. 

A. D. igo , and prayer was offered on 

your behalf 



Remember this as you grow in years, and follow on to 
know the Lord Jesus Christ, whom to know is Life 
Eternal. 



THE "CHRISTIAN CHURCH" 367 

" When the children arrive at maturity, a class of catechu- 
mens is started, in which they are especially instructed in the 
essential truths of Christ's religion, and their duty to accept 
Him and join the church by baptism, impressed upon them. 
Whereupon, those who desire to be are baptized. 

" When I, while in British Columbia, objected to the admin- 
istration of the Lord's Supper to the natives, one of the reasons 
was, that I felt persuaded that the man-made additions to the 
ordinance, which the ritual of the church imposed, would mis- 
lead and prove to be a curse rather than a blessing to the 
natives in their infantile condition as Christians. I cannot shut 
my eyes to the sad fact that out of and around the administra- 
tion of the sacrament (not out of the partaking of it) have 
arisen the greatest errors and the bitterest strife which have 
cursed and torn the Christian Church, and I did not want to see 
these errors spring up in Metlakahtla, while I had influence to 
keep them out. 

" After the settlement of our people in Alaska, we added this 
Christian ordinance to our Church service, but we keep it in 
the simplicity of its inauguration. I recognize the ordinance to 
be simply a memorial, and Christians are to partake of it — but 
I see no authority for it to be administered by a priest. We 
have a very solenm and simple service. After my address to 
the people, on some Scripture bearing on the service — I step 
down, and take my seat among the congregation ; — four elders 
then go to the table, and while they stand before it I read the 
words from the Scripture which our Lord used when He in- 
stituted the ordinance. The elders then take plates of bread, 
and hand them to the communicants where they are seated. 
After the bread is received, each communicant kneels in silent 
prayer. The wine, in four vessels, is dealt with in the same 
way. When all have partaken in this way, I resume my place 
at the desk, and we join in a hymn of praise, and this is fol- 
lowed by prayer by one of the elders. 

"This takes place three times a year, only at evening service, 
to which none come but those who desire to participate in the 
Communion Service." 



XLII 

THE GRAND OLD MAN 

THE fame of the mission of Metlakahtla has 
travelled all over Alaska, and it is now gen- 
erally recognized as the only successful mission- 
ary undertaking in all the great Northland. 

Even those in Alaska, who have no use for churches, 
and no faith in missionaries, priests or ministers, make 
an exception of "Father Duncan," as he is generally 
called in the great Northwest. The roughest miner, the 
most godless gambler, the most arrant infidel, will take 
his hat off to him. That is merely an evidence of the 
general respect with which a great, unselfish but success- 
ful Christian man and his accomplishments inspire every- 
body, even though they be not believing Christians. 

If Mr. Duncan should be asked for his views as to why 
Metlakahtla has proven such a contrast to the pronounced 
failures surrounding it, he would, undoubtedly, after hav- 
ing insisted on giving God the glory, first and last, say : 

' ' First : I have always, from the first, given these 
natives the Gospel message in their own language ; I 
never would speak to them, either through an inter- 
rupter^ or in the trading jargon.'' 

"Second: I have kept out all sects and denomiua- 

' His way of spelling interpreter. 

■^ A bishop, who once addressed some Indians through an interpreter 
■who spoke Chinook, conld appreciate the broad grin he observed on the 
faces of his hearers, at the translation of the first two words in his ad- 
dress in "Chinook," when he afterwards learned that "Children of 
the forest," had, by the interpreter, been given as " little men among 
the big sticks." 

368 



THE GRAND OLD MAN 369 

tional rule. We are simply 'Christians,' nothing else, 
at Metlakahtla. The Word of God has united us, not 
split us up into parties, and we love and treat all 
evangelical Christians as our brethren. 

"Third : By removing those who came under the in- 
fluence of the Gospel away from heathen and bad white 
influences, and by, as much as possible, keeping them 
and their children uucontaminated by bad associations." 

To this I would like to add a further reason for the 
success of Metlakahtla, viz : 

Fourth : The combination, so rare, that it becomes 
almost miraculous, of an excellent Christian preacher, 
filled with the Holy Ghost, and a first-class, practical 
business man, in the person of the missionary in charge. 

Mr. Duncan has, naturally, after his sad experience, 
no use for Missionary Societies, or Missionary Boards. 
According to his idea, successful missions, fostered under 
their care, come to exist, not ^^ propter hoc,^^ nor even 
^^post Jioc,^^ but " in si)ite of /)oc." 

His conception of an ideal mission is one conducted by 
a practical. God-fearing missionary, selected from the 
midst of a Christian congregation, and supported by it, 
or, at the most, by two or three congregations who con- 
clude to do this work together. He thinks that with 
direct communication thus continuously existing between 
the congregation (and preferably between individual 
members of it) and the missionary, far better results will 
be obtained than by the present complex machinery, 
which naturally has a tendency to foster a spirit of inter- 
vention, dictatorialness, and short authority in the ex- 
ecutive board, which must have anything but a healthy 
effect on the growth of a Christian mission. 

;ic ^ ^ ii; ;K * 

Some way or another, Mr. Duncan always makes me 
think of Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles. 



sro THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

Not only in liis mental make-up and splendid determi- 
nation, but in his appearance, tliere is something that re- 
minds me of the picture I carry in my mind of the great 
Apostle. 

Short of stature,^ stocky,'' a stroug bald head,^ 
a full, white beard, sparkling, bright, blue eyes, and 
ruddy cheeks, like a bonny country lassie, — there is 
such a virility, such courage, and such youthful power 
emanating from him, that it seems almost incredible that 
the snows of seventy-six winters have fallen on his de- 
voted head. 

When you observe the erect carriage, the elastic step, 
the almost electric activity, and when the fire of the 
sparkling, laughing eyes lights yours, and you hear the 
sonorous, persuasive voice, relating some interesting in- 
cident in his wonderful life, you simply refuse to believe 
that any more than, at the outside, fifty years can have 
been, so far, the span of his life. 

You fully believe him when he tells you that he has 
never been sick in bed for a day of his loug life. He 
is indeed a walking evangel of the simple life, and shows 
it in every feature. 

No one who has enjoyed the privilege of sitting under 
the spell of his conversational powers will ever be able 
to forget the impression made upon him. And if that is 
the case with us, who only have heard him converse in 
English, what must it be to those who can understand- 
ingly listen when he converses in Tsimshean, the lan- 

^ He is only 5 feet 6^ inches tall. 

"His weight is about 165 pounds. 

* The little hair remaining is as white as snow. 



THE GRAND OLD MAN 371 

guage in which he himself says he both thinks and 
dreams. 



His great kindness is writ in large letters all over his 
face. And the glad smiles of the children of Metlakahtia, 
when they come into the sunshine of his eyes, bear wit- 
ness to it. 

Mr. and Mrs. "Wallace tell me, that during the ten 
years they have lived with him as everyday companions, 
year in and year out, he has never spoken a cross word. 

A man with a temper as sweet as that, ought to be 
married. But he has thought otherwise, and is a con- 
firmed old bachelor. 



One evening, four years ago, as we sat one moonlit 
night on the verandah, and a spell of reminiscence came 
over him, I suppose, he said that if any one, when he 
was twenty years of age or so, should have told him that 
he would live his life as an old bachelor and never get 
married, he would have laughed heartily at their igno- 
rance. 

''I had my friends and acquaintances among the 
young ladies," he said, "and, while I probably never 
was what you would call really 'in love,' there were 
some I liked very well indeed, I always enjoyed ladies' 
society, and do to this day. During the first ten or even 
twenty years of my sojourn among the Indians, my 
friends in Victoria were very busy trying to find a help- 
mate for me. Some of them even went so far as to send 
ladies, whom they wanted me to marry, on trips up the 
coast. But while I of course appreciated their kindness, 
I would much have preferred to make my own choice, if 
I had felt so inclined." 



372 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

After a short silence : 

^'I even bad a love-letter once. Would you believe 
it ? A lady in Victoria wrote me that she had admired 
me from the first day she had heard of my work, and still 
more so after she met me, and that she would gladly have 
become my wife, and joined me in my work, had I asked 
her. But that I had never asked. That she, before she 
on the morrow was to become another honourable man's 
wife, thought she would close these pages of her life by 
telling me what her feelings had been. 

" And she was no old maid, neither," he added with 
a humorous twinkle in his eye. "She was a fine-look- 
ing young girl, and a very good woman. I guess she 
wanted me to know what I had missed." 

" Would you mind telling me the real reason you never 
married 1 " I asked. ' ' Was it not because your experi- 
ence with Mrs. Tugwell, the first lady missionary sent 
out to you, prejudiced you against all women 1 " 

" Oh, no," he said, " I had better sense than that. I 
knew very well there were a few of them who could make 
biscuits. But I made up my mind that I could not con- 
scientiously ask any refined woman to come up and share 
my lonely life among the Indians, hundreds of miles from 
all the comforts of life. I knew well enough that I could 
ask no one else to make the sacrifice I made. I knew 
that nothing would have been so precious to me as hu- 
man sympathy and interest in my work ; no greater help 
to me than to have some one share my sorrows and 
troubles, as well as my joys and my glorious experiences. 
But I also knew, that what was promised in enthusiasm 
might be rued after years of hard trial, and that the time 
might come when I might be compelled to give up my 
life-work at the solicitation of a wife who had become 
tired of the tribulations of a career among the Indians. 
In brief, I made uj) my mind that my life-work was of 



THE GRAND OLD MAN 373 

greater importance to me tlian domestic happiness ; and 
so I pursued my solitude. And still, I am wrong in call- 
ing it solitude. God was with me. Do you know, when 
I returned to England in 1885, and met an agnostic, 
who expressed doubt about God's existence, I said to 
him : 

"Sir, do not talk that way to me. I have been in 
God's presence during my solitude among the savages. 
There have been times when I felt God's very presence — 
when, it seemed to me, that I even saw His face." 

And as Mr. Duncan's eyes glowed when he said it, and 
as his face shone in the moonlight, I really believed that 
he had. I thought I could see in it the reflection of 
Jahve's glory. 



Like every old bachelor, of course Mr. Duncan has his 
peculiarities. Thus, he allows no person to come into 
his bedroom. For these many years he has persisted in 
making his own bed, and himself takes care of his imme- 
diate belongings. Even his office must be free from 
female interference. It is only on rare occasions, when 
he has been away, perhaps once every four or five years, 
that Mrs. Wallace has had the privilege of dusting and 
cleaning it, and putting things in order. 

But, after such a house-cleaning, it takes him quite a 
while until he gets everything back into that beautiful 
disorder, the mixture on floor and chairs, and shelves, 
and tables, of books and boxes, and papers, and letters, 
which enables him to find anything he wants, when he 
wants it, because he remembers j ust where he put it, and 
how many other layers have been placed above it, for he 
has a memory which seems almost superhuman. He not 
only practically knows the whole Bible by heart, but he 
can reel off whole sentences from books that he has read 



3Y4 THE APOSTLE OF ALASKA 

perhaps years ago, and recite hymns and songs at pleas- 
ure. Names of the most insignificant persons whom he 
has met ouoe in his life, forty, fifty, or even sixty, years 
ago, seem to come as readily to his tongue as if they 
were impressed on his mind but yesterday. 



One day, some three years ago, I stood near him on the 
dock at Metlakahtla, as the Spokane^ with a large number 
of excursionists, was about getting away. A kind- 
hearted, eldeiiy lady, who had shown great interest in 
the work, asked him : 

' ' What have you done about a successor ? What is to 
become of this glorious work when you die % " 

He did not answer in words. 

The index finger of his right hand was lifted on high, 
pointing up into the sky above. 

It was not done for effect. I saw a glorious ray of faith 
in his eye. I then believed that God would provide. I 
still so believe. 

And yet, I betray no professional secret, for Mr. Dun- 
can has himself spoken of it to the Indians, when I say, 
that he has, to my knowledge, in his will provided that 
all he owns in the world is after his death to go into the 
hands of three intimate friends, to be by them held in 
trust for the benefit of the Indians, for the purpose of 
maintaining among them the same Christian work, in the 
same spirit as it has by him been carried on. 

We all hope and trust, however, that God will 
give him many years of life and of work to His glory 
yet. 

But when the time comes — when his life-work shall be 
ended, and God, the Almighty Father, shall want him to 
come home, I hope it will be his good fortune to look for 
the last time into the indescribably rich beauty of a glo- 



THE GRAND OLD MAN 376 

rious Alaska sunset, and that the Lord of Hosts, as He 
took Elijah of old, will send down His chariot of fire in 
which to take to the paradise of the Christ, above the 
sunlit clouds, His venerable, lovable servant, 

William Duncan, 
** The Apostle of Alaska.^ ^ 



Index 



Aboard the man-of-war, 39 
Active Pass, description of, 47 
Actors and speakers, born, are the 
Tsimshean men and women, 340 
Address in Tsimshean, 127 
Adultery, punishment for, 82 
Advancement, temporal, 175 
Agnostic, Mr. Duncan's argument 

with an, 24, 25 
Agweelakkah's village on the Nass 
River, 144; the Chiefs prayer, 
146 
Ainuetka vs. Skigahn, 31 1 
Alaska climate, 334, 335 
Alaska, Governor of, 289, 317 
Alaska Indians, battle with, 65 ; 
Metlakahtla natives decide to re- 
move with Mr. Duncan to Alaska, 
288-290 
Alaska, Southeastern, author's tour 

in, 7, 84, 330, 340, 348 
Alaskan Archipelago, 288 
Alert Bay, Rev. A. J. Hall at, 249, 

256 
Alexander Archipelago, 289 
Alford, Dr., of Highbury College, 
30, 35 ; sees Mr. Duncan off at 
Plymouth for his Alaskan mission 
field, 37 
Alkali deposits, use of by the 

Tsimsheans as soap, 7 1 
Amgets, the, 89 
Ancon steamer, 291 
Annette Islands, 289, 290, 328 
Anniversary, fiftieth, of Mr. Dun- 
can's arrival at Fort Simpson, 
325 
•'Apostle of Alaska," The, 16; 

(see under Duncan) 
Apostolic benediction in Tsim- 
shean, 305, 343, 344 
Appetite, inordinate, of Indian for 
intoxicating liquors, 252 



" Armadale," Senator MacDonald's 
home, 285 

Athabaskan Indians around the 
Yukon, 61 

Athletic sports, Tsimsheans lovers 
of, 340 

Atkinson, Alfred, 283 

Atlantis, in the Pacific, 62 

Attendance at church, in 1860-61, 
147 ; at school, 148 

At the Fort (Simpson), 51 

Author (Dr. Arctander) is received 
and entertained by Mr. Duncan, 
7 ; spends vacations at Metla- 
kahtla, where he writes his 
book, 7 

Aztecs, ancient, traces of the peculi- 
arities of, 62 

Babel, Tower of, Tsimshean 

legend of, 62 
Bachelor, Mr. Duncan a confirmed, 

184, 371. 373 
Back in Old England, 217 
Baines, Moses, deportation of, 283 
Ballot box, the button in the, 183 
Band, Mr. Duncan acquires instru- 
ments for native, 225 
Band stand at Metlakahtla, Alaska, 

337 
Bands, reed and string, etc., at 

Metlakahtla, 337 
Banking, Tsimshean mode of, 78 
Baptism of the Tsimsheans, 149 
Baptism, Mr. Duncan's custom as 
to, 149, 150 ; his later views on, 
364 ; ordinance of. Bishop Rid- 
ley's liberal administration of, 
252 
Baptize converts, Mr. Duncan did 

not, 150 
Baranovitch, C. V., Russian trader, 
197, 200, 201 



377 



378 



INDEX 



Barter system, early, at Hudson's 

Hay Co.'s stores, 66 
Baseball nine, 340 
Basket-making, 347 
Battle between good and evil, story 

of the, 109, 112 
«« Battle-ship," Mr. Duncan's, 333 
Beecher, Rev. Henry Ward, 288 
Begbie, Sir Matthew, his speech 

at murder trial, 192; decision 

against Indian rights to their 

lands, 283 
Behind the Walls, 118 
Behring, Captain, visit of in 1741, 

63 

Benevolent fund, 302 

Benson, Edward, 291 

Beverley Minster, 21 

Beverley, Yorkshire, England, Mr. 
Duncan's birthplace, 20 ; here 
he first heard the call to be a 
missionary, 27, 33 ; returns on a 
visit to in 1870, 223 

Bible, King James' version, 363 ; 
no translation of into Tsimshean, 

363 

Bible class among bluejackets on 
board ship, 41 

Bible classes for both sexes, 221 

Bilgula Indians of British Colum- 
bia, 61 

Birthday of New Metlakahtla 
(Alaska), 292 

Births and deaths at Metlakahtla, 
Alaska, 331 

Biscuits, Mrs. Tugwell unable to 
make, 142 

Bjornson, Hans, convicted of sell- 
ing liquor to Indians, 215 

Black flag, the, 193, 194 

Black letter day for village and 
mission of Metlakalitla, 250 

Blacksmith shop at old Metlakahtla, 
181 

Bloodshed, none for forty years, 
204 

Bloodthirstiness and savage cruelty, 
scene of, 56 

Blow, the last, 279 

Bluett-Duncan, Dr, J. D., 289, 290, 
327 



Bolton, Jacob, 275 

Bompas, W. G., Bishop of Atha- 
baska, 240, 24S, 249 

Book of Common Prayer translated 
by Bishop Ridley, 363, 364 

Booth, Mrs. Lucy A., of Metla- 
kahtla, legends related by, 103, 
108, 338 

Boys' Home ( educational building) 
at Metlakahtla, the, 316 

Boy the father of the man, the, 19 

Boyd, Thomas, 328 

Brands of salmon canned at Metla- 
kahtla, Alaska, 356 

Brass band, Mr. Duncan acquires 
instruments for, 225 ; learns 
gamut of thirty instruments, 226 ; 
how the Indians learned to play 
the, 226, 227 ; furnishes choice 
music, 326; concert tour of, 337 

Bread and water diet, Mr. Dun- 
can's, 40 

Breeding ground of salmon, 351 

Brick kiln, Mr. Duncan starts one 
at Metlakahtla, 181 

British Columbia Province, 43 

British Columbia Government, 285 

Brooks, Bishop Phillips, 288 

Brown's Passage, 54 

Building lots and houses, new, at 
New Metlakahtla, 231 

Butler, Captain, of the Western 
Union Telegraph Co., 166 

Button in the ballot box, the, 183 

Call, Mr. Duncan's, to undertake 

mission work, 16 
Call, Indians unanimous, that Mr. 

Duncan should remain their 

preacher and teacher, 264 
Call, Mr. Duncan's acceptance of 

to continue mission work, 266 
Call of the Lord, 15; of the home 

land, 222 
Calvert, Adolphus, legend related 

by, 62 ; deportation of, 283 
Campbell, Sidney, 326 
Candle fish (see Oolakan) 
Cannery at Metlakahtla, Alaska, 

316, 354 
Cannibal clubs, 89, 91, 127 



INDEX 



3Y9 



Canning of salmon, process of, 351 ; 
work in cannery, 353 

Canoe building, now eclipsed by 
white man's boat, 347 

Canoe song, 339 

Canoe trips, Mr. Duncan on, 143 

Cape Mudge, Mr. Duncan sees first 
totem- pole at, 47 

Carolina, the, Mr. Duncan's trad- 
ing schooner, 178 

Carpenter's shop started, 181 

Carr, Rev. A. T., vicar of Bever- 
ley, 15, 18, 23; death of, 27 

Census of the people, Mr. Duncan 
takes one, 1 19 ; new census, 330, 

331 

Ceremonies, marriage, 73, 74 ; after 
death, 75 

Chantrel, Mr., a schoolmaster, 257 

Chapman, Mr., of the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, 28 

Chapman, Rev. J. A., Methodist 
preacher of Ketchikan, 326 

Chief Quthray, head of the canni- 
bal club, 127; refuses to kneel 
at Mr. Duncan's church service, 
127 

Chiefs, some, abandon their medi- 
cine work, 138 

Child in the moon, legend of the, 
100 

Children brought to church to be 
prayed for, 331 

Chinook language, Mr. Duncan 
picks up first knowledge of at 
Victoria, B. C, 45 ; not used for 
preaching, 57 

Christian village, a, 151 

" Christian Church " at Metla- 
kahtla, Alaska, 358 ; cost of, 
231 ; undenominational, 358 

Christiaii Missionary Intelligeucer, 
The, 33 

Christmas Day, " the great dress- 
day," 136, 292; first celebration 
of, 310, 313; 1888, services of, 
292 

Church building, new, at Metla- 
kahtla, built by voluntary contri- 
butions, 59, 170, 231, 321 

Church manual printed, 305 



Church Missionary Society, The 
8, 15, 28, 142, 170, 232, 248; 
displays a more churchly spirit, 
240 ; letter to Mr. Duncan, dis- 
rupting relations, 262 

Citizenship, native, 318 

Clah, of Legaic's tribe, aids Mr. 
Duncan in acquiring a knowledge 
of the Tsimshean tongue, 57, 59 ; 
accompanies Mr. Duncan when 
the latter delivers his first gospel 
message, 122 

Clan division, intertribal, among 
the Tsimsheans, lodges or clubs 
of, initiation of by medicine-men, 
88 

Clarence Strait, 334 

Cleveland, President, 289 

Climate of Metlakahtla, Alaska, 

327. 334, 335 

Clog manufactory started at Metla- 
kahtla, 230 

Clubs of cannibals, dog-eaters, etc.. 

Coast Indians of British Columbia, 
the, 61 ; their wars with the In- 
dians of the interior, 65 ; far in 
advance of the Indians of the 
plains, 61 

Collins accused of whiskey-selling, 
208 

Collison, Rev. W. H., missionary at 
Kincolith, 147 ; comes from Eng- 
land as schoolmaster, 232 ; Mr. 
and Mrs., 233; Mr., 258, 267, 

273 

Columbia, diocese of, division of in 
1879, 250 

Columbian Archipelago, 48 

Comforter from heaven, favourite 
trysting-places of the, 15 

Common Prayer, Book of, in Tsim- 
shean, 364 

Conferences of mission workers, 257 

Constable, office of at old Metla- 
kahtla, and numbers, 156, 158, 
161 

Constitution for new community, 
299 

Contents and Illustrations, 11-14 

Cook, Captain, 63 



380 



INDEX 



Cooper shop established at Metla- 
kahtla, 230 

" Coppers," or hammered shields 
of the Indians, 73 

Cousins, Mr. Duncan's old em- 
ployer at Beverley, 22 j visit to, 
in 1870, 224 

Creation of man, 102 ; of the world, 
loi 

Cremating of Indian dead, 75 

Crests define the bonds of Indian 
consanguinity, 87 

Cridge, Rev. Edward, of Victoria, 
B. C, 45, 46; baptizes Indian 
converts and children at Metla- 
kahtla, 173; wins Indian hearts, 
173; quarrel with Bishop Hills, 

173 

Crosby, Rev. Mr., of Fort Simpson, 
245, 246 

Cruise of five hundred miles, a, 348 

Cunningham, ex-prize-fighter, trial 
for whiskey selling, 213 ; fined 
for the offence, 215 

Cushwaht threatens Mr, Duncan's 
life at the schoolhouse, 139 ; 
publicly flogged for shooting, 188 

Customs, peculiar, of the Tsim- 
sheans — shields, ornaments, and 
heirlooms, also marriage cere- 
monies, funeral customs, potlatch 
feasts, etc., 72-83 ; totems and 
clubs, 84 

Dam built at mouth of Lake in the 

Clouds, 319 
Dance, Mr. Duncan asked to a, 

145 ; his scruples in accepting, 

145 
Dawson, Hon. H. R., United States 

Commissioner of Education, 291 
Day at Metlakahtla, a, 305 
Dead, cremation of the Indian, 75 
Death, ceremonies after, 75 
Deatli rate among children, 332 
Declaration of Metlakahtla (Alaska) 

residents, 299 
Dedication, 5 
Delegation to Ottawa, 280 
Denominational rule and all sects, 

Mr. Duncan opposed to, 358 



Descent, law of, 74 

Destroying property, 79 

Devil abroad, the — Mr. Duncan's 
life threatened, 130, 133 

Devil bringing light into the world, 
the. 

Devil, the, and the bears, ; and 
the gull. 

Devil's Thumb, the (a mountain), 
103 

Diaries, Mr. Duncan's treasure- 
chests, 8 ; extracts from, 1 28, 

134, 310 

Diffidence, Mr. Duncan's, 41 

Discovery Passage, British Colum- 
bia waters, 47 

Dismissal of Mr. Duncan by the 
Church Missionary Society, 262 

Disorder of Mr. Duncan's den, 373 

Distribution of Metlakahtla lots, 
301 

Divorces unknown, 346 

Dixon Entrance, 51, 61, 65, 290, 
294 

Docket, from Judge Duncan's, 202 

Doctors at Metlakahtla, 302, 328 

Dog-eaters' club, 89, 91 

Donations from Mr. Duncan's 
friends, 232 

Doolan, Rev. R. A., conducts mis- 
sion at Kincolith, 147 ; and at 
Kuinwoch, 218 

Douglas, Governor Sir James, of 
Victoria, B. C, 43, 44, 118, 165, 
198 

" Dress-day," the great (Christmas 
Day), 136 

Dress of Metlakahtla women, 345 

Drunken brawls on decrease in 
camp, 137 

Drunkenness gathers strength, 150 

Dudoward, Alfred, of Fort Simp- 
son, half-breed chief, 253 

Dufferin, Lord and Lady, their 
visit to Metlakahtla, 236 ; Ca- 
nadian Governor-General, 281, 
284 

Duncan, William, receives and en- 
tertains author at Metlakahtla, 
Southeastern Alaska, 7 ; interest- 
ing table-talks of, 7 ; truthful re- 



INDEX 



381 



port of and documents drawn 
from, 8 ; his contention with 
Bishop Ridley and the Church 
Missionary Society, 8 ; hears 
call to missionary work at Bev- 
erley, Yorkshire, 1 6 ; accepts call 
and communicates with Church 
Missionary Society, i8 ; his birth 
and early career at Beverley, 20 ; 
sings solo parts in the Minster, 
21 ; employed in a tannery, 22 ; 
his argument with an agnostic, 
24 ; preaches his first sermon, 
26 ; communicates with and later 
calls on the Church Missionary 
Society, 28 ; refuses business ad- 
vancement, 29 ; has two years' 
training at Highbury College, 
30 ; accepts field of mission work 
in Alaska, and sets off in a war- 
ship from Plymouth, 37 ; his 
mode of life on board, 40; ar- 
rives June 13, 1857, at Victoria, 
B. C, and has interview there 
with Governor Douglas of the 
Hudson's Bay Co., 42, 43 ; in- 
sists on proceeding to Port Simp- 
son, but first picks up a knowl- 
edge of the Chinook language, 
45 ; a Tsimshean Indian (Clah) 
assists him in this, 45 ; makes 
friendly acquaintance with Rec- 
tor (later Bishop) Cridge at Vic- 
toria, 46 ; proceeds on the steam- 
ship Oder for Fort Simpson and 
arrives there October i, 1857, 
50 ; makes acquaintance with his 
future wards, the Tsimshean In- 
dians and their head chief Legale, 
53 ; acquires a knowledge of the 
Tsimshean tongue, 57 ; behind 
the walls, 118; inveighs against 
the breaking of the Sabbath, 
118; delivers his first gospel 
message, 122, 124; teaches 
Tsimshean children and builds 
schoolhouse, 1 29 ; his life threat- 
ened, 133 ; Legale relents and 
makes much of his " teapots " or 
certificates of good character, 
135 ; Duncan addresses school 



children and their parents on 
Christmas Day, 136; his life in 
peril from the Indian Cushwaht, 
139 ; also from Loocoal, an In- 
dian medicine-man, 141 ; visits 
Victoria and brings Rev. L. S. 
Tugwell (a missionary) and his 
wife to Fort Simpson, 142 ; car- 
ries the Gospel to the Tsimshean 
tribes of the Nass River, 143 ; 
missionary services held and 
schools conducted there in the 
native tongue, 147 ; the Tug- 
wells' good work there, but later 
on they return to England, 149 ; 
Mr. Duncan removes to and 
forms a new Christian village at 
Metlakahtla, seventeen miles 
south of Fort Simpson, 152; rules 
formulated to govern the inhab- 
itants of the new home, 154; ar- 
rival there of the entire Kitlahn 
tribe under two chiefs, 155 ; 
smallpox outbreak among the In- 
dians at Fort Simpson, 156; 
chieftainship among the Chris- 
tian Tsimsheans abolished, 157; 
death of Legale, the Tsimshean 
head chief, under happy Chris- 
tian auspices, 163 ; successful 
progress of the village at Metla- 
kahtla and its encouraging spir- 
itual condition, 165 ; visit to 
Metlakahtla of Rev. E. Cridge, 
173; the latter has quarrel with 
Bishop Hills, 173; natives op- 
posed to hierarchical domina- 
tion, 174; temporal advancement 
of Metlakahtla, stores opened 
and new industries started, 175 ; 
profits of trading establishments 
applied to public improvements, 
181 ; Indians given share in the 
government of the village and 
the church, 181 ; Hudson's Bay 
Co.'s monopoly yields to Mr, 
Duncan's enterprise, 180; priv- 
ilege of the ballot given to na- 
tive electors, 183; Cushwaht 
again gives trouble and is publicly 
flogged, 188; Simeon Johnson 



382 



INDEX 



and Sebassah, chief of the Kith- 
rathtlas, kill white men and Mr. 
Duncan aids in bringing them to 
trial at Victoria, where the death 
sentence is passed upon them, 
afterwards commuted to life-im- 
prisonment at Metlakahtla, 189- 
192; subsequently reforming and 
becoming Christians, they regain 
their liberty, 192 ; mode of get- 
ting a bad man out of town by 
hoisting the black flag, 193; the 
old head chief of the Kitlahns ex- 
pelled, but promising to behave 
himself Mr. Duncan permits his 
return, 195 ; telephone instru- 
ment installed and worked at 
Metlakahtla, 196 ; Mr. Duncan's 
attitude towards Baranovitch, a 
Russian trader, who sold liquor 
unlawfully, 197 ; Duncan is 
given magisterial authority to 
deal with such cases, his recti- 
tude and success as a judge, 198; 
extracts from Judge Duncan's 
docket, 202 ; good effect of pub- 
lic whippings on offenders of the 
law, 203 ; Duncan's successful 
treatment of wife-beating, 204 ; 
also of illegal whiskey-selling, 
206 ; takes proceedings against 
other of the law's offenders, 208 ; 
Duncan's grit in tackling the 
Hudson's Bay Co. for selling 
liquor to the Indians, 212 j the 
Hans Bjornson case, 214; the 
murder of two white miners, 
Mr. Duncan's influence and 
power in bringing one of the law- 
breakers to justice, 217; origi- 
nates a mission at Kuinwoch, on 
the Nass River, 218; Mr. Dun- 
can erects mission house, with 
dormitory for girls attending 
trading school, 220 ; he advises 
Christian men at Metlakahtla not 
to take wives of the women in 
camp at Fort Simpson, 220; or- 
ganizes fire brigade, 220 ; estab- 
lishes Bible classes for men and 
women, 221 ; leaves Metlakahtla 



to visit England and pick up a 
knowledge of different trades and 
occupations, 222 ; at Beverley, 
his old English home, 223 ; calls 
on Mr, Cousins, his former em- 
ployer, 224 ; takes notes of various 
trades, 224 ; obtains instruments 
to form a brass band for his na- 
tives at Metlakahtla, 225 ; buys 
looms and machinery at Victoria, 
B. C, for a weaving plant, 226 ; 
teaches his Indians to play on 
the brass band, the gamut of 
which he had himself already 
learned, 226 ; obtains an organ 
for his church services from Vic- 
toria, 227 ; home again and his 
reception on his return to Metla- 
kahtla, 228 ; sets his industries at 
work and aids in rebuilding his 
village, 230 ; erects a new church 
and schoolhouse, 231 ; his as- 
sistants in conducting the latter, 
232 ; Archdeacon Woods' pen 
sketch of Mr. Duncan's Christian 
settlements at Metlakahtla and 
Kincolith, 233 ; he frees all 
slaves from bondage among the 
neighbouring Indians, 234 ; his 
account of the condition of some 
relieved slaves, 235 ; visits Ot- 
tawa to urge governmental action 
against land-grabbers, 236 ; visit 
of Lord and Lady Dufferin to 
Duncan's far-oft' Indian mission, 
236 ; visit of Admiral Prevost to 
Metlakahtla, 237 ; the admiral's 
account of his brief visit, 238 ; 
Mr. Duncan's contrivance for 
street-lighting, 239 ; Bishop Bom- 
pas' extended visit to Metla- 
kahtla, 240; Church Missionary 
Society suggests that Mr. Dun- 
can's mission should be turned into 
an Episcopal church and that he 
(Mr. Duncan) should take priest's 
orders, 240; Mr. Duncan's repug- 
nance to a " churchly church " 
and his unwillingness to become 
an ordained priest, 241 ; the 
war-ship riuinpcr despatched to 



INDEX 



383 



the Indian village and Mr. Dun- 
can's peaceful intervention, 242 ; 
Mr. Duncan installs Rev. A. J. 
Hall in Metlakahtla and himself 
leaves for Victoria, B. C, 244 ; 
fanatical outbreak in Mr. Dun- 
can's absence brings him home 
again, 245 ; Rev. Mr. Crosby 
fans the flame of fanaticism and 
Mr. Duncan returns and checks 
it, 246 ; Bishop Ridley locates 
Rev. A. J. Hall at Alert Bay, 
249 ; Bishop Bompas refuses to 
play at church politics at Metla- 
kahtla and blesses Mr. Duncan's 
beneficent work there, 249 ; the 
bishop baptizes and confirms the 
native Christians and ordains 
Mr. Collison a priest, 249 ; 
Bishop Ridley is appointed to the 
Episcopal See of Metlakahtla and 
arrives there November i, 1879, 
250 ; the bishop offends Mr. 
Duncan by his assumption of full 
episcopal state and ritualistic 
bent, while he arraigns Mr. 
Duncan for withholding the sac- 
rament of the Lord's Supper 
from the native Christians, 251 ; 
Mr. Duncan's defence, and the 
bishop's continued efforts to 
thwart him and undermine his 
influence with the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, 251-255; con- 
ference at Metlakahtla in July, 
1 88 1, from which the bishop ab- 
sents himself and sulks, 256, 
257 ; the conference asks that 
Metlakahtla be made an inde- 
pendent lay mission, and the 
Society answers by calling Mr. 
Duncan home to England to talk 
over matters, but this, at present, 
Mr. Duncan is unable to act 
upon, 258-260 ; under Bishop 
Ridley's malign influence, the 
Society is misled as to Mr. Dun- 
can's actions and the postpone- 
ment of his design to go to Eng- 
land to confer with it, and sun- 
ders its relations with Mr. Dun- 



can and brings about a rupture, 
261-263 > ^Ii'* Duncan's native 
following endorse and sustain 
him in abandoning the Mission 
House and call upon him to con- 
tinue to be their teacher and 
leader, as well as their minister, 
which Mr. Duncan agrees to, the 
good work at Metlakahtla going 
on as if there had been no sev- 
erance of relations with the So- 
ciety in England, 264-267 ; the 
Society grieves over the rupture 
caused by Bishop Ridley's in- 
discretion and lack of good faith, 
and the latter writes Mr. Duncan 
making him all sorts of proposi- 
tions for his return, with the na- 
tives, to the fold, but these are 
answered by the laconic and dig- 
nified reply of " too late," 268, 
269 ; with the malice of the ser- 
pent, the bishop now resorts to 
thwartings and contemptible 
schemes to embarrass Mr. Dun- 
can and his following, to setting 
up a rival local store, and lay 
claim to the Indians' property, 
besides getting into a personal 
wrangle with some of the natives 
— all which created much bad 
blood and stirrings up of trouble, 
270-278 ; a further blow fell 
upon the native residents at Met- 
lakahtla by the bishop insti- 
gating an attack on the Indians' 
little patrimony and their rights 
in holding land in the colony, 
which was denied them — the up- 
shot of all being to lead Mr. 
Duncan to seek a new home for 
his people in Alaska, U. S., 280- 
287 ; with the sanction of the 
United States authorities the new 
Alaskan home, Port Chester, on 
Annette Island, is given them 
and there Mr. Duncan and his 
good Indian following proceed 
to settle, 288-290 ; temporary 
dwellings erected, 291 ; " Pio- 
neer Day " established, 292 j 



384 



INDEX 



population of the new village 
home, 295 ; fire consumes Mr. 
Duncan's former village home 
and Bishop Ridley's ill-gotten 
gains, 296 ; activities of Mr. 
Duncan's " pioneers " at New 
Metlakahtla, 298 ; allegiance 
sworn to their new, adopted 
country and constitution for the 
new community drafted and 
adopted, 299 ; draft of Mr. Dun- 
can's declaration of residents, 
299, 300 ; growth of the " Be- 
nevolent Fund," and loss by fire 
of new sawmill and sawn lum- 
ber, 302; building lots distrib- 
uted and dwellings erected, 303 ; 
printing establishment set up and 
serial started — The Aletlakahtlan, 
305 ; Mr. Duncan's article, " A 
Day at Metlakahtla," appears in 
serial, 306-309 ; leaves from Mr. 
Duncan's diary, 310-314; new 
village store founded and ope- 
rated by Mr. Duncan, 315 ; Boys' 
Home, Industrial Training School 
for Girls, and Mission Building 
erected, 316; Metlakahtla Indus- 
trial Co. founded and capital- 
ized, 317; Mr. Duncan receives 
official visit of the Governor of 
Alaska, 317 ; right of citizenship 
delayed, 318, 319; sawmill 
burned but rebuilt and new ma- 
chinery purchased, 319, 320; 
fire consumes twenty dwellings 
in village, 320 ; new provision 
for better fire protection made, 
321 ; Mr. Duncan erects his new 
church — " Westminster Abbey " 
it is styled, 321 ; sums raised by 
Thanksgiving and New Years' 
offerings, 322 ; plank walks laid 
down and other village improve- 
ments, Guest-IIouse built and 
furnished, 323 ; jail, engine 
house, and public library erected, 
323 ; notable contributions to the 
latter, 324, 325 ; fiftieth anniver- 
sary of Mr. l3uncan's arrival at 
Fort Simpson celebrated, 325, 



326 ; addresses and presentations 
to Mr. Duncan, 326 ; fiftieth an- 
niversary of Mr. Duncan's first 
sermon preached in Tsimshean 
also noted, 326 ; results of Mr. 
Duncan's faithful work and 
names noted of some of his as- 
sistants, 327, 328, 329 ; difficulty 
in obtaining schoolmasters, 329 ; 
emigrants to New Metlakahtla 
and census records, 330 ; deaths 
and death rate, 331, 332; sights 
and distinctive features of Mr. 
Duncan's new village — a model 
one, 333, 334 ; climate of Alaska 
recorded, 334, 335 ; flowers and 
berry growth, 335 ; Mr. Duncan 
encourages native athletic sports, 
340 ; does away with match- 
making, 346 ; deference shown 
to Mr. Duncan, 349 ; official 
name of the church at Metla- 
kahtla and Mr. Duncan's non- 
sectarianism, 358 ; his church 
services, 360, 361 ; the " Grand 
Old Man," 368 ; personal ap- 
pearance, 370 ; some habits and 
characteristics, 372, 373; his at- 
titude towards a successor, 374 

Dundas, Rev. R. J., baptizes adults 
and children at Metlakahtla, 172 

Du Vernet, Right Rev. F., Bishop 
of Caledonia, 257, 297 

Dwelling house, Duncan builds one 
without the Fort, 165 

Dwelling houses, new and im- 
proved, built at Metlakahtla, 231 ; 
at Metlakahtla, Alaska, 303, 319 

Educational building at Metla- 
kahtla, 316 

Election of elders, first, 182 ; orig- 
inal mode of, 183; improved 
mode of, 184 ; present mode of, 
184 

Emigration to New Metlakahtla, 

330 
Engine house at Metlakahtla, 323 
England, back in old, 217; Mr. 

Duncan's visit to, in 1870, 220, 

222 



INDEX 



385 



Epidemic, malignant, at Metla- 
kahtla, 163 

Epidemic of smallpox at Victoria, 
153; at Fort Simpson, 155, 156; 
among Legaic's tribe, 158 

Episcopal church, Bishop Bompas' 
design to turn Mr. Duncan's mis- 
sion into an, 249 

Episcopal church service, Mr. Dun- 
can reads at the Fort, 118 

Esquimault harbour, Victoria, B. 

C.,42 
Etiquette, Tsimsheans sticklers for, 

76 
Evil influences of the heathen 

homes, 151 
Expenditures on public affairs at 

Metlakahtla, 232 ; on public 

streets, 232 ; on '< Westminster 

Abbey," 321 

Father of the man, the boy the. 

Father of liars, 116 

Feast at old Metlakahtla, descrip- 
tion of a, 172 

Female suffrage, none at old Metla- 
kahtla, 184 

Fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Dun- 
can's first sermon, 326 

Finlayson's Channel, 48 

Fire brigade service at Metlakahtla, 
220 

Fire at Metlakahtla, Alaska, 320 ; 
at Fort Simpson, 81 

Fire protection, provision for, 321 

Fire-water, 82 

First fruits (of Mr. Duncan's la- 
bour), 137 

First martyrs in Metlakahtla jail, 
278 

First message, Mr. Duncan delivers 
his first Gospel address to the 
Tsimsheans, 122, 124; fiftieth 
anniversary of, 326 

Fish food of the Indians, 67 

Fisherman, Alaska, how paid or 
remunerated, 356 

Fitzhugh Sound, 48 

Flogging as a punishment, efficacy 
of, 204J 



Flood, legends of the great, 62 

Flotsam and Jetsam, 333 

Flowers and berries at Metlakahtla, 

335 

Food of the Tsimsheans, 67 

Football team, Metlakahtla, 341 

Fort, at the (Simpson), 51 

Fort Rupert, Indians of, 47 ; dis- 
embowelled bodies seen at, 47 ; 
carry away a slave, 242 

Fort Simpson, B. C, Hudson's Bay 
Co.'s post at, 50 ; Mr. Duncan's 
arrival here (October i, 1857), 
50 ; Indians break camp at, 67 ; 
outbreak of smallpox at, 156; 
fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Dun- 
can's arrival at, 325 

Fraser Reach, 49 

From Judge Duncan's docket, 
202 

Funeral ceremonies, 75 

Funeral dirge (Lemkoy), 75 

Furs, price of, 178 

Future punishment, Tsimshean 
ideas of, 106 

Gambling, a national vice of the 
Tsimsheans, 80 

Garcotitch, Peter, Slavonian trader, 
sells liquor to Indians and is con- 
victed and fined, 209 

Girls' school under Mrs. Collison, 

233 

Glad Tidings, Methodist Gospel 
boat, 294 

God's Book, 121, 124, 125 

Good Time Island, 333 

Good and evil, battle between, 109, 
112 

Gordon, Adam, 291 

Gospel teaching taking effect, 1 38 

Gospel, influence of, showing, 137 

Government aid for schools at 
Metlakahtla, 328 

Graham Reach, 49 

Graham Island, 233 

Grand Old Man, the, 368 

" Great Dress Day," 136, 292 

Grenville Channel, 49 

Gribbel, Rev. F., disaffected to- 
wards Mr. Duncan, 219 



386 



INDEX 



Guest-House, the, at Metlakahtla, 
175 ; at Metlakahtla, Alaska, 323 
Gulf of Georgia, 47 
Guthrie, Josiah, 284 
Guthrie, Alex., his bungalow, 304 

Hadley, John H, and wife, 329 
Haidas, the, Indian tribe, 61 ; 

totem-poles on Haida village, 

85 ; expert carvers of the coast, 

85 ; missionary work among, 233 
Haldane, Matthew, the late, 304 
Haldane, Benjamin A., 9, 51 ; his 

home, 304; at organ, 326; at 

piano, 338 
Halibut of from seventy-five to two 

hundred and fifty pounds, 69 
Hall, Rev. A. J., 244 ; located at 

Alert Bay, 249, 256 
Hallach, Tsimshean slave, I13-I15 
" Hallied," or Indian deviltry, 91, 

Haman hanged on his own gal- 
lows, 264 

Hamblett, Alonzo, a half-breed 
teacher, 329 

Hamblett, Eli, a Dane, 210 

Hammond, the revivalist, 253 

Hanbury, Tom, his house, 303 

Handel's " Messiah " oratorio, 326 

Hazleton, Methodist mission at, 255 

Heathenish hysterics, 130 

Heathenish rites, 138 

Heavenly chief, the, 10 1 ; son of 
the, 108 

Heavens, legend of moving the 
heavens back, 62 

Hewson, Robert, 274, 275, 276, 284 

Hewson, Stephen, Mr. Duncan's 
early friend, 16 

Hiehish Narrows, 48 

Highbury College, where young 
Duncan receives two years' theo- 
logical training, 30, 35 

Highmas, head chief of the Kit- 
seesh tribe, brings fire-water 
among the people, 185 ; his 
pleading wife, 186 

Hills, Bishop of Columbia, 169 ; 
baptizes fifty-seven adults, 169; 
baptizes more adults, 173; has 



falling out with Dean Cridge, 

173 ; his diocese divided, 250 

Holidays, great, celebrated at New 
Metlakahtla, 292 

Home again, 228 

Home land, call of the, 222 

Home, the new, 287 

Hoochinoo, a vile concoction, 82 

House in which first sermon was 
preached, 123 

Houses, old Indian, 

How Mr, Duncan became a judge, 
197 

Hudson, Cornelius, 278 

Hudson, Everett, the little trump- 
eter, 

Hudson's Bay Co.'s trading station 
at Fort Simpson, 33 ; refuses to 
open a store at Metlakahtla, 177 ; 
accused of selling liquor to In- 
dians, 178, 212; overbids Mr. 
Duncan on furs and undersells 
him on goods, 179 

Hymn singing, 136 

Immortality, Tsimshean idea of, 
104 

Incidents, interesting, 185 

Income from industries, 270 

Indemnity for murder among the 
Tsimsheans, 80 

Independence of Indian Christians 
at Metlakahtla, 174 

Indian Affairs, Deputy Minister 
of, 282 

Indians, study of their manners 
and customs, 72 ; given a share 
in the government of village and 
church at Metlakahtla, 181 ; 
slavery practiced among, 234 ; 
forbidden by law to drink 
liquors, 198 ; ancient rights in 
lands denied them, 279 ; defeated 
in test case for land, 283 

Industrial Training School for 
girls, 316 

Industries at Metlakahtla, Alaska, 

350 
Industry, need of new sources of, 

Infant baptism, 366 



INDEX 



387 



Infidel, Mr. Duncan's argument 
with an, 24, 25 

Influence of the Gospel, I37 

Influenza, epidemic of, 33I 

Inside Passage, the, 43 

Instruments for brass band, 225 

Interesting incidents, 185 

Interior of some Metlakahtla 
houses, 337 

International Sunday-school lesson, 
360 

Intertribal clan division, 88 

Intoxicating liquors among the 
Tsimsheans not known till com- 
ing of the Whites, 82 ; pledge 
not to drink any, 147 

Introduction, 7 

Jahve's presence, Mr. Duncan in, 

373 
Jail, Metlakahtla, a perfunctory 

institution, 323, 324 
Japanese current, the, 334 
Johnson, Simeon, murderer, 189, 

191 ; later becomes a good Chris- 
tian, 193 
Judge, how Mr. Duncan became a, 

197 
Judge Duncan's docket, from, 202 
Justice, how it was dealt out to 

offenders at Metlakahtla in 1863- 

85, 200 
Justice of the peace, Mr. Duncan 

appointed a, 198 

Karta Bay, home of C. V. Barano- 
vitch, 197 

Keene, Rev. J. H., 297 

Ketchikan, Alaska, 330 

Kincolith Mission, the, 147 

Kintsadah, Chief, pilots Mr. Dun- 
can up the Nass River, 144 

Kishpokaloats tribe, the, 53 

Kishpootwadda totem, the, 85 

Kitandoah tribe, the, 53 

Kitandoah and Kithrahtla tribes 
eligible for membership in Can- 
nibal Club, 89 

Kithrahtlas tribe, the, 54 

Kitlahn tribe flock to the Christian 
village, 155 



Kitlootsahs and Kishpokaloats, vil- 
lages of the, 53 

Kitnakangeak tribe, the, 53 

Kitseesh tribe, the, 53 

Knapp, Hon. L. E., Governor of 
Alaska, visit of, 317 

Kowak and her daughter, 109, 1 10 

Kowak's deserted village. III 

Kuro Shiwo, or Japanese current, 
334 

Kwakiutl Indians, 61 

" Labrette," or bone ornament, 

72 
Lacheboo totem, the, 85 
Lackshkeak totem, the, 85 
Lake in the Clouds, the, 333 
Lama Passage, 48 
Land-grabbers, white, 236 
Land troubles, Indian, 279 
Language, the Tsimshean, 61, 85, 

103 
Last blow, the, 279 
Lawbreakers, Indian, 202 
Law cases, Mr. Duncan's at Met- 
lakahtla, 202 
Law of descent, 74 
Lay mission, Metlakahtla a, 258 
Leamlahaga, he hears the tele- 
phone talk, 196 
Leask, David, presents address to 
Lord Dufferin, 237 ; Mr. Dun- 
can's native teacher, 270, 329, 
364 ; aids in selecting new home, 
291 ; death of, 329 
Leask, Martha, 329 
Leaves from Mr. Duncan's diary, 3 10 
Legale, head chief of the Tsimshean 
Indians at Fort Simpson, 53, 55, 
157 ; his bloodthirstiness and 
savage cruelty, 56 ; seeks to kill 
Mr. Duncan, but is prevented by 
Clah, 134; repents and attends 
Mr. Duncan's school, 157 ; is 
baptized, 160, 170; death of, 
164 ; his tribejavaged by small- 
pox, 158; appointed a constable, 
161 ; but gives it up, 162 
Legends of the flood, 62 
•• Lemkoy," funeral dirge, 75 
Lewis, Captain, 180 



388 



INDEX 



Lex talionis, 80 

Library, Mr. Duncan's private, 323 

Library, public, at Metlakahtla, 

Alaska, 324 ; contributions to, 

324, 325 
Life after this, the Tsimshean idea 

of, 104 
Life insurance, Tsimshean method 

of, 78 
Ligaket tribe, the, 55, 57 
Light, legend of how it came into 

the world, 108 
Liquor seizure, 210, 212 
Liquor-selling, the Hudson Bay 

Co. accused of, 212 
Living, Tsimshean mode of, 66 
Lockerby, Gordon, 51 
London, Mr. Duncan in, 28 
Loocoal, medicine-man, threatens 

Mr. Duncan's life, 141 
Lord's Supper, Mr, Duncan's 

scruple to admit his Indian 

proteges to the, 240, 251, 365 
Lord, the call of the, 15 
Lord's Prayer in Tsimshean, the, 

343 

Lots, all corner at Metlakahtla, 
300 ; distribution of at Metla- 
kahtla, 301 

Love of song and music, Tsim- 
shean, 362 

Love song, native, 338 

Low church views, Mr. Duncan's, 
240, 241 

MacDonald, Hon. W. J., 46 
Macdonald, Sir John, his promise 
to Mr. Duncan, 280 ; how he 
broke it, 281 
Malone, Dennis, 278 
Man, creation of, 102 
Manners of the Indians, 8 
Man-of-war, aboard the, 39 
Man, the boy tlie father of the, 19 
Man with wooden wife, legend of, 

104 
Marriage celebrations at Metla- 
kahtla, 230 
Marriage ceremony among the 

Tsimsheans, 73, 74 
Marsden, Edward, 326 



Mart, great trading, at Fort Simp- 
son beach, 52 

Martyrs in jail at Victoria, first, 278 

Match-making, 346 

Match not made in heaven, a, 

Mather, Edward K., 102, 278, 280, 
283 

Mat-making, 347 

McKay Reach, 49 

McKee, J. F. and wife, 329 

Meanskinisht, Mr. Tomlinson at, 
301 

Medicine-man, name of in Tsim- 
shean, 92 ; parboiling and cut- 
ting off chiefs head, 95-97 ; his 
power of prophecy, 99 ; story 
of the Kitlahn chief and the, 93 

Medicine-men among the Tsim- 
sheans, their so-called miracles, 
92-96 ; rites of, 96, 97 ; super- 
natural power of, 95, 99; held 
in awe, 97 

Memory, Mr. Duncan's wonderful, 

373. 374 
Message, the first, 122 
•' Messiah," the oratorio of sung by 

the natives, 326 
Metlakahtla, meaning of the word, 

152 

Metlakahtla, B. C, and Alaska, 
Mr. Duncan's mission fields at, 
52, 60 ; site of old Metlakahtla, 
seventeen miles south of Fort 
Simpson, B. C, 152 ; trading 
establishment at, 177 ; rules 
governing the inhabitants of, 
154 ; three hundred new settlers 
arrive at old Metlakahtla, 155 ; 
Mr. Duncan takes leave of on a 
visit to England, 122; returns to 
(February 21, 1 871), 228; mis- 
sion at desired to be turned into 
an Episcopal church, 241 ; a 
model village, 151; declaration 
of residents of, 299 ; fire at, 320 ; 
a day at, 305, 306 ; Metlakahtla 
industries and industrial com- 
panies, 316, 317; volunteers of, 
341 ; baseball nine, 340 ; a sec- 
ond Garden of Eden, 249 ; only 
mission in Alaska a success, 369; 



INDEX 



389 



football team, 341 ; some Metla- 
kahtla history, 315 ; the Metla- 
kahtla Industrial Co., 317, 356; 
industries of, 317, 350; a wind- 
fall, 297 

Metlakahtlan, The, 305 

Mid-week evening service at Met- 
lakahtla, 363 

Minthorn, Dr. H. J., 327 

Missionary meeting at Beverley, 
England, 15, 25, 26 

Missionary societies and boards, 
Mr. Duncan has no use for, 369 

Missionary spirit over the people, 
221 

Mission field, a new, 32 

Mission house at Metlakahtla, 165 

Mission, Mr. Duncan's view of how 
an ideal one should be carried 
on, 369 ; reasons why the Metla- 
kahtla one is so successful, 369 

Mitchell, Bertram G., 329 

Mode of living at Port Simpson, 
B. C, 66 

Model Christian village, a, 151 ; 
model village, 334 

Modesty of Mr. Duncan, innate, 19 

Money for giving slaves their 
fr-eedom provided by the profits 
of Mr. Duncan's trading estab- 
lishments, 234 

Moon, worship of the among the 
Tsimsheans, 106 

Moon's phases, enactment of the, 
107 

Morality of the Tsimsheans, 82 

Mortality, excessive, at Metla- 
kahtla, 332 

Moses to his people, Mr. Duncan a, 
241 

Moving village store by Indians at 
old Metlakahtla, 56 

Murder of Haida at Fort gate, 56 

Murder of Whites by Indians, 56 

Muscular Christianity, Bishop Rid- 
ley's, 272 

Musical accomplishments of Mr. 
Duncan, 23 

Musical instruments and or- 
ganization at Metlakahtla, 226, 
227 



Nass River, B. C, temperance 
meeting at, 147 ; Mr. Duncan's 
trips up the, 143, 233 

Native love song, 338 ; canoe 
song, 339 

Native offerings for church ex- 
penses, 149 

Nautical skill, native, 347 

Nelson, Hon. Knute, United States 
Senator from Minnesota, 318 

Nephew, custom of marrying 
uncle's widow, 79 ; always ma- 
ternal uncle's heir, 79 

New church at Metlakahtla, 231 

New home, the, 287 

New mission field, a, 32 

New Year's Day, school feast to 
natives, 148 ; annual tax levy, 
168; new colonists admitted, 173 

Neyahshnawah, head chief of the 
Kitlootsah tribe, Mr. Duncan 
preaches his first sermon and 
carries the Gospel message to, at 
Fort Simpson, 122 

Neyahshot, medicine-man, 93 

Neyashack, Mrs. Joseph, 113 

Neyashlakahnoosh, old head chief 
of the Kitlahns, 93, 194, 195, 196 

" Nirwana " of the wonderful 
Northland, 49 

Nishaes, the Indian, 94 

Non-sectarianism in heathen mis- 
sions, 358 

Northland, the call of the, 7 

Northwest Coast Mission, confer- 
ence of workers at, 257 

Notable visitors, 236 

Oath in Tsimshean, no expression 
for an, 103 ; no oaths heard, 334 

Occupations of Indians at Metla- 
kahtla, Alaska, 356 

Offerings of natives, 322 ; of 
tourists, 322 

Offer of advantageous berth refused 
by Mr. Duncan, 30 

Oliver IVolcott, revenue cutter, 273 

Onward and upward, 165 

Oolakan or candle fish and its oil, 
in Portland Canal, and up the 
Nass River, 68, 115, 138 



390 



INDEX 



Ordained, Mr. Duncan refuses to 

be, 240 
Orders in the church, Mr. Duncan 

declines to take, 240 
Ordination, Mr. Duncan's reasons 

for refusing, 24 1 ; his only ordi- 
nation, 266 
Organ acquired for Metlakahtla 

church, 237 
Organs and pianos at Metlakahtla, 

Alaska, 337 
Origin of the Tsimsheans, 61 
Ornaments of the Tsimsheans, 
Ottawa, Mr. Duncan's visit to, 

280 
Otter steamship, the, 46, 50 

Painting faces, Tsimshean custom 

of, 80 
Paintings in Metlakahtla church, 

364 
Paper collar, old, Mr. Duncan's, 98 
Parables, the, theme of Mr. Dun- 
can's discourse, 363 
Passage, the Inside, 43 
Patriotism of the Metlakahtlans, 
Peculiar customs of the Tsimsheans, 

72 

Pentecostal hymns, book of, 360, 
362 

Phonograph, listening to a, 349 

Photographic apparatus, etc., pur- 
chased by Mr. Duncan, 224 

Pike, Dr. Ernest R., 328 

Pilgrims, the, 293 

Pinto comes round for his oats. 

Pioneer Day, 292 

" Pioneers," Mr. Duncan's, 189, 298 

Piracy, with violence, 191 

Planking of Metlakahtla village 
streets, 323 

Pledge, temperance, 147 

Pledges of inhabitants of Metla- 
kahtla, 147, 154 

Plumper war-ship, the, 242 

Plumper Channel, 48 

Politeness and good manners of the 
Metlakahtlans, 349 

Pollard, preacher, 253 

Pope of Metlakahtla, Mr. Duncan, 
171 



Population of New Metlakahtla, 
330 ; of old Metlakahtla, 295 

Port Chester selected site for new 
village, 290 

Portland Canal, the oolakan or 
candle fish in, 68 

Port Simpson, B. C, 51, 53, 57 

Position, fine, offered to and re- 
fused by Mr. Duncan, 30 

Potlatch among the Tsimsheans, a, 

76,79 

Prayer, Agweelakkah's, 146 ; Mr. 
Duncan's, that he might die, 148 ; 
the Tsimsheans' to the Heavenly 
Chief, 102 

Presents, giving, 74, 77 

Prevost, Captain, presses Alaskan 
mission field on the Church Mis- 
sionary Society, 33 ; on the pub- 
lic, 34; visit of to Metlakahtla, 
237 ; gives present of street 
lamps to Metlakahtla, 239 ; 
description of a Sunday there, 
238 

Prices of furs at Fort Simpson, 67 

Priest, Mr. Duncan refuses to be 
ordained a, 242 

Prince of Wales Island, 308, 334 

Prince Rupert, 297 

Princess Louise steamer, 294 

Printing-press at Metlakahtla, 
Alaska, 305 

Profit-sharing at Metlakahtla, 
Alaska, 357 

Profits of trading establishment, 
how used, 181 

Promise, Stephen Hewson's, 17 

Property, giving away, 78 ; des- 
troying, 79; all stolen goes up 
in smoke, 296 

Prophetical power of medicine- 
men, 93 

Prostitution common among the 
Tsimshean women after coming 
of the Whites, 82 

Protection against fire, 321 

Public library at Metlakahtla, 324 

Public speaking, Tsimshean, 340 

Public works at Metlakahtla, 321 

Puget Sound, 32 

Purple Mountain, 319, 333 



INDEX 



391 



Queen Charlotte Islands, 233 
Queen Charlotte Sound, 48 
Quthray, Chief, of the cannibal 
club, 127 

Rainfall heavy in Alaska, 335 

Reasons for not introducing the 
Lord's Supper at old Metla- 
kahtla, Mr. Duncan's, 251, 252 

Rebuke of Sabbath breaking at the 
Fort, Mr. Duncan's, 118 

Reception, Mr. Duncan's, on his 
return from England, 228-230 

Reincarnation and soul transmigra- 
tion among the Tsimsheans, 105 ; 
legends dealing with, 105, 106 

Religion of the Tsimsheans, the, 
101 ; their legends, and the story 
of the battle between good and 
evil, 112 

Residents of Metlakahtla, declara- 
tion of the, 299 

Resolution adopted at conference 
of mission workers, 258 ; copy of 
sent to England, 259 

Restrictions on baptism, Mr. Dun- 
can's at Metlakahtla, 365 

Retaliation, law of among the 
Tsimsheans, 80 

Return, Mr. Duncan's, after visit to 
England, 228 

Revelations, youthful enthusiasts 
pretend to have, 246 

Ridley, Bishop, and the Church 
Missionary Society, Mr. Dun- 
can's contention with, 8 ; and the 
medicine-men, 27 1 ; corrupting 
Mr. Duncan's teacher, 270 ; fights 
the Indians in the street, 275 ; 
reads the riot act, 272, 273 ; 
opens store at old Metlakahtla, 
271 ; destroys letter from village 
council, 271 

Ridley's, Bishop, muscular Chris- 
tianity, 272; falsification of copy 
of resolution adopted by confer- 
ence, 259 ; false testimony as to 
being shot at, 277 ; translates 
into Tsimshean Book of Common 
Prayer, 364 ; fire devours all the 
bishop's ill-gotten gains, 296 



Ridley, Fred., 283, 291 

Ridley Home, the, 296 

Riot act read by Bishop Ridley at 
old Metlakahtla, 273 

Ritualism, Mr. Duncan's prejudice 
against, 171, 241 

Robbed of everything, 294 

Robson, Mr., British Columbia 
secretary, 285, 286, 287 

Roosevelt, President, 318; his 
" Presidential addresses and state 
papers," 324 

Rope walk at Metlakahtla, 230 

Rowe, Bishop, head of the Episco- 
pal church of Alaska, 358 

Rules governing native communi- 
ties at New Metlakahtla, 154 

Rupert, Fort, Indians of, 47 ; ab- 
duct Indian women slaves, 242 

Rupert, Prince, 297 

Rupture, the, 261 

Ryan, Stephen, dies of smallpox at 
Metlakahtla, 156 

Sabbath breaking at Fort rebuked 

by Mr. Duncan, 118 ; observance 

of Sunday at Metlakahtla, 1 66, 

334; at oolakan fishing, 166 

Sabbath-school at Metlakahtla, 

362 ; teachers' meeting, 362 
Salmon, various brands of, 356 ; 
fishing in the Skeena, 69 ; 
"shaming" the, 71 ; process of 
canning, 353 ; habits and lives 
of, 351 ; agents for the sale of, 
Alaska, 356 ; cannery, 260 ; 
spawning ground, 352; new 
cannery, 316; output, 319, 356 
Sash and door shop, 230, 308 
Satellite, H. M. S., sails with young 

Duncan from Plymouth, 37 
Savings of the Metlakahtlans, 357 
Sawmill outfit, steam, acquired, 
292; destroyed by fire, 302; a 
new one started, 303 ; it also 
burned up, 319 
Sawmills built and burned, 302,319 
Schoolhouse, Mr. Duncan's first, 
129; new, at Fort Simpson, 
149 ; new two-storey one at old 
Metlakahtla, 232 



392 



INDEX 



School feast, first, 148 

School, first, 126 ; school building, 
Mr. Duncan's, 127-129; Gov- 
ernment aid for at Metlakahtla, 
328 

Schoolmasters, bad luck in getting, 

329 

Schools for boys and girls, 296 

Schooner, Mr. Duncan buys a 
trading, 178 

Schutt, Mr, and Mrs. H., 233 

Schutt and Chantrel, schoolmasters, 
257 

Sebassah, chief of the Kithrathtlas, 
106; kills white men, 190 

Seducer, a, whipped in public, 202 

Sectarianism, Mr. Duncan's views 
on in heathen missions, 358, 359 

Sects and all denominational rule, 
Mr. Duncan eschews, 358, 368 

Sentence, a queer, 207 

Sermon, Mr. Duncan's first ex- 
temporaneous, 135, 136 

Serpent, the, 268 

Service, mid-week evening, 363 

Seymour Narrows, 47 

" Shaming " of the salmon, 71 

Shawl-making industry, 231 

Shimauget Lahaga, Tsimshean 
name for Heavenly Chief, loi, 
121 

Shoo-wansh, the Tsimshean medi- 
cine-man, 92 

Silas receives many votes, 182 

Simpson, Lieutenant, 70 

Singing of hymns in school work, 

137 

Sitka, Alaskan seat of government, 

312; museum at, 298 
Skeena River, breeding ground of 
red salmon, 69 ; raid up, by 
Tsimsheans, 106 
Skothene, the blind chief, 146 
Skovalis, extinction of the tribe, 55 
Slavery among the Tsimsheans, 
234 ; Metlakahtla smote the 
shackles of, 234 ; practiced 
among the Indians at the coast, 

234 
Slaves given their freedom, 234 
Smallpox among Indians at Fort 



Simpson, 156 ; at Victoria, B.C., 
153; among Legaic's tribe, 15S 

Smith, James, 283 

Soap factory started at Metlakahrla, 
176 

Some Metlakahtla history, 315 

Song, native love, 338 ; canoe, 339 

Son of the Heavenly Chief, the, 
108 ; Tsimshean story of the 
White Christ (Tezoda), 108, 
112-114 

Soul-transmigration, 105 

" Speak Lord, Thy servant hear- 
eth," 27 

Spencer, Charles, 278 

Spinning women, 230; mysteries 
of the spinning-wheel, 224, 230 

Spiritual conditions at Metlakahtla, 
169 

Spokane steamer, 374 

Spring flowers and fruit at Metla- 
kahtla, Alaska, 335 

Standard Oil Co.'s methods met and 
defeated, 179 

Star-Spangled Banner, the, 349 

Stais and Stripes, 290, 291 

Steam sawmill outfit at Metla- 
kahtla, Alaska, 298 

Stikeens, Indians of the Interior, 
61 

St. John's Church, Beverley, Eng- 
land, 15, 23 

Stolen property all in ashes, 296 

Store at Metlakahtla, Mr. Dun- 
can's, 178; Bishop Ridley's, 271 

Street fight between Bishop Ridley 
and the Indians, 275 

Streets of Metlakahtla, the, 322 

Stromstedt, Miss Daisy, 329 

Successor, Mr. Duncan's, 374 

Sunday, " dress-day," 136 

Sunday observance, Indian, at Met- 
lakahtla, 166 

Sunday services, 169, 359 

Supernatural power, way of show- 
ing, 95 ; name for, 113 

Surveyors and survey troubles, 
282 

Swineford, Governor, 341 

Tait, John, legend relater, loi. 



INDEX 



393 



196; deportation of, 283; ad- 
dresses Mr. Duncan, 326 

Taxes or salary paid by the Tsim- 
sheans to their chiefs, 79 

Tax-dodgers, none at Metlakahtia, 
168 

Tax levy at Metlakahtia, 168 

Teacher, Mr. Duncan's corrupted 
by Bishop Ridley, 270 

" Teapots," the, Tsimshean certifi- 
cates of character, 134 ; Mr. 
Duncan refuses to read Legaic's 
" teapots," 135 

Telephone talks in Tsimshean 
tongue, 196 

Temperance meeting, first held, on 
Nass River, 147 ; pledge, 147 

Temporal advancement, 175 

Test case in re Mission Point acres, 
283 

Tezoda, son of the Heavenly Chief, 
112-115 ; his direct descendants, 

"3 

Thanksgiving and New Year's of- 
ferings, 322 

Thlingits, Alaska Coast Indians, 
61 ; old village of, 298 

Thomas, Hon. E. J., of Brookline, 
Mass., 303 

Thraimshum, the Tsimshean devil, 
116 

Tinnehs, or Stikeen Indians, the, 61 

Tobacco, substitute for, 82 

Tolmie Channel, 48 

Tomlinson, Rev. R., at first disaf- 
fected towards Mr. Duncan, but 
afterwards his friend, 219 ; re- 
fuses to comply with bishop's 
order, 256 ; resigns, 284 ; Mr. 
Duncan's co-worker, 301 

Totem-poles of the Tsimsheans, 84 ; 
of the Haidas and Thlingits, 85 ; 
forests of in a Haida village, 85 

Totems and clubs, the, 84 

Totems, different animals genii of, 

85 
Totem system, Mr. Duncan's expla- 
nation of, 84 ; practical uses of, 

85 
Tourists' offerings at Metlakahtia, 
322 



Town Hall at Metlakahtia, Alaska, 
316, 326 

Trades and occupations studied by 
Mr. Duncan in England, 222, 
223 

Trading establishments, Mr. Dun- 
can's at Metlakahtia, 230 

Trading schooners on the coast, 
nothing but grog-shops, 176 ; 
Mr. Duncan sets up one with no 
liquor for sale, 178 

Tradition of the first visit of the 
Whites, 63 ; of the revenge of 
Highmas, 186 

Traimshum, the bears and the 
gull, ; his slave, ; his 

shining coat, ; and the hali- 
but fisher, ; the Tsimshean 
devil, 116; early history and 
characteristics of, 116, 117 

Transmigration of souls, Tsimshean 
idea of, 105 

Trial of Mr. Cunningham, 214; of 
Collins, the whiskey-seller, 208 ; 
of Peter Garcotitch, 209 ; in 
Judge Duncan's court, 200, 206 

Troubles brewing at old Metla- 
kahtia, 250 

" Try, I will," in Tsimshean, 59 

Tsimshean, meaning of the word, 

53 

Tsimshean love song, 338 ; canoe 
song, 339 ; funeral dirge, 75 

Tsimshean Indians of Metlakahtia 
around Fort Simpson and up the 
Nass River, 53, 61 ; Mr. Duncan 
acquires a knowledge of the 
native tongue, 58 ; their man- 
ners, customs, religion, and leg- 
endary lore, 62, 64 ; their wars 
with Indians of the Interior, 65 ; 
habits of gambling, 80 ; potlatch 
festivities, 76, 77 ; their totems 
and clubs, 84 ; their medicine- 
men and religious ideas, 92-96, 
10 1 ; they cremate their dead, 
75 ; language of, 61 ; Mr. Dun- 
can's addresses to, 126, 127; 
baptism of the, 149 

Tuberculosis and pulmonary troub- 
les, epidemic of, 331 



394 



INDEX 



Tugwell, Rev. L. S., missionary, 
arrival of from England to assist 
Mr. Duncan in his work, 142; 
baptizes first converts, 149 ; re- 
turns to England vi'ith his wife, 
149 ; Mr. Duncan's experience 
with, 372 

" Tumpaldo " (I will try), 59 

Undenominational church at 
Metlakahtla, 358 

Unfaithfulness in wife punishable 
by death, 82 

United States Commissioner, Mr. 
Duncan a, 310 

Usher, George, his song, 292 ; ex- 
tract from his sermon, 265, 292 ; 
his religious exhortation, 340 

Venn, Rev. Henry, General Sec- 
retary of the Church Missionary 
Society, 240 ; death of, 240 

Victoria, B. C, Mr. Duncan arrives 
there from England and is of- 
ficially received by Governor 
Douglas of the Hudson's Bay 
Co., 43; the city in 1857, 43; 
Mr. Duncan at, 141 ; outbreak 
of smallpox at, 153 

Victoria to Sitka, trading schooner 
between, 197 

Village, a model Christian, 151, 334 

Village council appointed, a, 182- 
184 

Village taxes at old Metlakahtla, 
155, 168 

Virago, H. M. S., 32 

Visit of Lord Dufferin, in 1876, 
236 ; of Bishop Bompas in 1877, 
248 ; of Admiral Prevostin 1878, 
237; of Governor Knapp, 317; 
of Mr. Duncan to England, 222 

Visitors, notable, 236 

Voice, Mr. Duncan's phenomenal, 
as a youth, 21 

Voices of prima donnas at Metla- 
kahtla, 337 

Volunteers, Metlakahtla, 341 

Wages paid by Mr. Duncan, for 
work done, 175 



Waheim tribe, the, 55 

Wallace, Mr. and Mrs. James, 9, 

329.330, 341.361,371,373 
Walls, behind the, 118 
War-ship, Bishop Ridley's calls 

for, 272 
Wars with Indians of the Interior, 

Tsimshean, 65 
Washington, D. C, Mr. Duncan 

goes to, to seek new home in 

Alaska, 288 | 

Waterpower used for sawing wood 

shown Indians, 1 81 
Water saws wood, 181 
Weaving plant machinery acquired, 

226, 230 
Weesner, Mr. and Mrs. E. W., 

329 

Wellcome, Henry S., 302, 321 

West, Miss M., of the Ridley 
Home, 297 

"Westminster Abbey," Mr. Dun- 
can's, 321 

Whipping, good effects of one, 203 

Whiskey banned and its use forbid- 
den at Metlakahtla, 199; trial 
and tribulation of whiskey-sell- 
ers, 206 

White Christ, story of the, 108 

White, Harry, 211 

White plague, deaths from, 33 1 » 

Whites, tradition of the first visit of 
to the coast, 63, 65 

Whooping-cough, epidemic of, 33I 

Wife-beating, Mr. Duncan's pun- 
ishment for, 205, 206 

Wind storm, 320 

Wine, law against giving Indians, 

252 
Wolcott, Oliver, U. S. revenue cut- 
ter arrives at old Metlakahtla, 

273 
Womakwot, brother of Highmas, 

185 
Woman slave carried to distant 

tribes in Alaska, 235 
Woodcock's Landing, 209 
Wooden wife, legend of the man 

with the, 104 
Woods, Archdeacon, his description 

of Metlakahtla, 233 



INDEX 395 

Worksop, England, suicide of land- Yellow Hill, 333 

lord of hotel at, 23 Young People's Gospel hymn 

World, creation of the, 10 1 song service at Metlakahtla, 

Worship of the moon, Tsimshean, Alaska, 362 
106 

Wrangel, Mount, 103 ZOBO band, girls', 337 

Zuruet, Jeremiah, a French-Cana- 

Yaculta, or Seymour Narrows, 47 dian, 330 



3i|-77-l 



